Although tariffs imposed on steel and aluminum imports provided a temporary boost, the industry is seeing another decline
ASHLAND, KENTUCKY — Brenda Deborde cried throughout her 16-hour shift at the steel plant here when she received official notice this August that her job was being cut.
Deborde had hoped President Trump’s tariffs could revive this once-mighty mill on a bank of the Ohio River, which for much of the 20th century formed the center of economic life in this part of Eastern Kentucky.
She and her husband, Matt, had traveled to welcome the president as he went to a rally in nearby Huntington, W.Va., waving their Trump flag and “Make America Great Again” hat to the motorcade from the side of the road.
Donald Trump’s favorite tough-guy theme with his China tariffs is how he’s making “Pennsylvania and USA more prosperous/secure by bringing Steel and Aluminum industries BACK.”
Back in January, he claimed “Tariffs on the ‘dumping’ of Steel in the United States have totally revived our Steel Industry. New and expanded plants are happening all over the U.S. We have not only saved this important industry, but created many jobs. Also, billions paid to our treasury. A BIG WIN FOR U.S.” Then in April, “The forgotten voters of the 2016 Election are now doing great,” he crowed in April. The Steel Industry is rebuilding and expanding at a pace that it hasn’t seen in decades.”
Totally revived! Many jobs! Billions paid! So much for that. The price of steel peaked in the summer of 2018 and has been in decline since. Prices for steel are now lower than they were before the initial tariffs were imposed. Car-making and construction is down, so demand is down and “three of the largest steel companies in the country—U.S. Steel, Fort Wayne-based Steel Dynamics and Nucor—all warned their financial results would be worse than projected in the third quarter.”
Richard Lattanzi, mayor of Clairton, Pa., and a safety inspector for a nearby U.S. Steel plant, poses for a portrait Tuesday. Credit: Michael Henninger, The Washington Post
Clairton, PA — When President Trump imposed tariffs on steel imports in June, Richard Lattanzi thought of dozens of his fellow steelworkers who have for years put off badly needed repairs of their cars and homes.
“There was a lot of excitement here; there were a lot of us saying, ‘It’s about time someone is looking out for us,’ ” said Lattanzi, the mayor of this town of 7,000 and a safety inspector at the U.S. Steel plant in nearby West Mifflin. “A lot of people around here were saying, ‘We’re going to be okay.’ ”
Four months later, Lattanzi is less optimistic. Production at U.S. Steel’s facilities have ramped up, and the company announced this summer that, thanks in part to the tariffs, its profits will surge. But in interviews in recent weeks, Lattanzi and other steelworkers said they’re no longer confident they’ll take part in the tariff bounty.
The following article by Jenna Johnson was posted on the Washington Post website July 25, 2017:
Credit: City of Youngstown
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio — President Trump escaped the roiling turmoil of Washington on Tuesday evening — leaving behind the chaotic effort to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, the intensifying Russia investigation and his latest staff shake-up — to rally with his supporters in this former steel town.
“I was looking at some of those big, once incredible job-producing factories. And my wife, Melania, said, ‘What happened?’ I said, ‘Those jobs have left Ohio,’ ” Trump said to a cheering audience of several thousand. “They’re all coming back. . . . We’re going to fill up those factories or rip ’em down and build brand new ones. That’s what’s going to happen.” Continue reading “Steel Valley’s Youngstown is much more complicated than Trump portrays”
Although tariffs imposed on steel and aluminum imports provided a temporary boost, the industry is seeing another decline
Donald Trump’s favorite tough-guy theme with his China tariffs is how he’s 
