CHICAGO (Reuters) – President Donald Trump promised a new dawn in 2016 for the struggling U.S. steel industry, and the lure of new jobs in the Midwestern states, including Michigan, helped him win a surprise election.
Four years later, Great Lakes Works – once one of the largest steel plants in the state – has ceased operations and laid off 1,250 workers. A year before the June scandal, United States Steel Corp, the owner of the plant, called for an investment plan of 600 million in upgrades amid deteriorating market conditions.
Trump’s strategy focused on protecting US steel mills from foreign competition with a 25% tariff imposed in March 2018. He also promised to boost demand for steel through large investments in roads, bridges and other infrastructure.
But as a result of the tariffs, higher steel prices rejected demand from the Michigan-based U.S. auto industry and other steel consumers. And the Trump administration has never complied with the infrastructure plan.
This war-torn state relies heavily on Michigan’s steel and auto toe industries ahead of the Nov. 3 presidential election to sharpen Trump’s trade policy. Democrats say their goal is to regain the votes of blue-collar workers who lost to Trump four years ago – a key factor in her victory over Hillary Clinton. Trump won Michigan in less than one percent of the statewide total vote. Political analysts say that often the competition for the votes of federal manufacturing workers – who have historically voted for the Democrats – will be just as fierce in the war-torn states of Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.
Biden is ahead of Trump in Michigan by 8 percentage points, boosting his lead a few weeks ago, according to a Reuters / Ipsos state opinion poll of potential voters conducted from September 29th to October 6th.
U.S. The steel industry has been losing jobs nationally since Trump took office last year – before the massive economic downturn caused by the COVD-19 epidemic – and now employs 1,900 fewer workers than when Trump took office, according to Labor Department data. (For graphic on steel jobs, click tmsnrt.rs/2SRIEaF)
While tariffs have failed to boost overall steel employment, economists say they have created cost-cutting costs for major steel consumers – killing jobs at companies including Detroit-based auto Tomcats General Motors Co. and Ford Motor Co., at least nationally as a result of steel and aluminum tariffs. 75,000 jobs lost by the end of last year in the metal-using industry, Ph.D. According to Lydia Cox’s analysis. Kadi Rush, a candidate for economics at Harvard University, and a professor of economics at Davis University of California. Overall, they estimated that trade and mid-day losses led to a net loss of 175,000 US manufacturing jobs by mid-2019.
In Michigan, steelmakers have issued layoff notices to about 2,000 workers since the tariffs were imposed, according to a Reuters analysis of notices filed by the state. According to data from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, Trump employed about 7,300 fewer workers in iron gust than in March 2018, including the state’s primary metals manufacturing industry, which includes iron and steel mills.
U.S. Labor Department figures show that the steel-industry shock in Michigan’s manufacturing sector accounted for only a fraction of the job loss – which now employs 55,100 fewer workers than Trump did when he took office in January 2017. According to the St. Louis Fed, manufacturing jobs in the state’s omot tomato industry lost as much as 35%.
It remains to be seen whether such figures will change the minds of swing-state voters. Bill Wishman, financial manager of the Ford manufacturing facility in Plymouth, Michigan, says Trump has done more to protect U.S. manufacturing than any of his predecessors.
“He’s worked hard,” said Vishchaman, a 51-year-old Republican who voted for Trump in 2016.
Bob Kemper, chairman of the grievance committee in the Great Lakes Works chapter of the United Steel Workers’ Union (USW), blamed Trump entirely for the job loss.
“I don’t see any policy that helped us,” Kemper said in support of Biden. “We’re losing our cynical jobs here.”
The 1.2 million member United Steel Workers (USW) union, which is part of the U.S. industry in many industries. Representing product manufacturers, he backed Clinton in the last election and will support Democrats again this time. Kemper acknowledged that many of his colleagues voted for Trump in 2016, but says support has waned with the fortunes of Michigan’s steel industry.
Trump promised a similar 2016 campaign to revive the ailing coal industry by reversing environmental regulations. But that industry’s employment has fallen 46% to 46,000 since 2016, as coal 66 coal plants – about a fifth of the total in the US – have closed. Economic losses occur despite the administration’s measures to limit carbon emissions and simplify controls, including the dumping of coal waste into streams.
The Republican Party in Michigan did not respond to requests for comment. White House Trade and Manufacturing Policy Director Peter Navarro did not respond to Reuters questions on data showing job losses in steel and manufacturing.
U.S. While Steel sticks to Great Lakes Works, which primarily serves the omot tomato industry, it cited weak demand, lower steel prices and a new corporate strategy to invest in more cost-effective technology. In May, Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. said it was closing its hot strip steel mill and some other operations in the Detroit area and laying off 343 workers. It cites “rapidly deteriorating business conditions.”
A spokesman for Cleveland-Cliffs did not respond to questions about the impact of Trump’s policy on his trade.
US steel defends Trump’s tariffs. Company spokeswoman Meghan Cox said the policy “helps ensure the strengthening of America’s steel production capacity during this epidemic.”
Pay firm shares have fallen nearly 82% since the start of March 2018 – the month Trump announced steel tariffs – compared to a 28% increase in the S&P 500 over the same period. U.S. Steel prices are now 33% below their peak in May 2018 but 21% higher than the global market price due to tariffs – a gap that hurts the competitiveness of US companies making products from domestic steel.
“It doesn’t matter what the tariff is, you can’t sell something if there is limited demand,” said Ned Hill, a professor of economic development at Ohio State University.
‘Progressive’ venture
Trump said at a rally in Pennsylvania in August last year that steel companies were struggling with falling demand and prices – that his tariffs had turned a “dead” business into a “developed” venture.
Initially the U.S. Companies, including Steel and Newcore, benefited from tariffs by limiting competition and raising prices. In late 2018, U.S. Steel workers received a 14% wage increase over a four-year period.
Jeff Ferry, chief economist at the Coalition for a Prosperous America, a bilateral trade group, said the tariffs also led to investment. Older coal-fired plants like Great Lakes Works have been shut down due to outdated technology, he said.
“We’re not doing this to save personal jobs in the short term,” Ferry said of the tariff. “If you grow the industry, in the long run, the headquarters will grow.”
Camper said there is some relief for workers laid off from the Great Lakes Works, which has made it difficult to find new jobs amid the epidemic. The mayors of the cities said that the twin-course and reverse twin cities, which rely heavily on tax revenues from the plant – also suffer, the mayors of the cities said. Democrat Mayor Lamar Indewell said Orse was collecting million 1 million in property taxes from the Access Mill – or half of its revenue.
Many Democrats have supported the steel tariff. The Biden campaign did not respond to a request for comment on its steel trade policy. In a statement to the USW in May, Biden said global tariffs for limiting steel tariffs would remain in place – mostly until negotiations could be held in China.
The USW also supports tariffs, but says the Trump administration is trying to persuade the U.S. to use steel. The policy was weakened by requests to exempt manufacturers from their imports – removing the benefits of domestic steel.
Tariff Hits Michigan UT To FIR
Industry experts say the tariff has had a profound effect on steel consumers. All three Detroit auto tomatomakers – General Motors, Ford and Fiat Chrysler om Tomobiles NV, have shut down a plant in Michigan since January 2018, according to Christine Dziczek, vice president of industry, labor and economics at the Center for Automotive Research. Both General Motors and Ford reported steel costs of each 1 billion each in 2018.
GMA declined to comment on the impact of the tariff. A Ford spokesman said InTomeker faced lower raw material costs in 2018 as it buys 95% of its steel from local suppliers. Since then, crude steel prices have come down, while U.S. Having tariffs has increased Ford’s manufacturing costs. Ford’s vehicle exports to China have also declined due to retaliatory tariffs.
Companies below the auto supply chain have also felt the impact of Trump’s trade policy.
Jeff Aznavian Ryan, head of Michigan-based Clips and Clamps Industries, plans to build metal and tool parts for Japanese and Detroit-based auto tomers. Buys steel from mills. He said his company had lost up to $ 3.6 million in contracts in the past two years. Competitors competing in Canada and Mexico now have an advantage, as steel costs have dropped in those countries.
Azanveri said he could move some of his business abroad.
“I need to be in a place where I can buy raw materials at competitive prices,” he said.
Report by Rajeshkumar Singh; Additional reporting by Timothy Gardner; Edited by Caroline Stauffer and Brian Thanonat
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