Made In America: Nucor Execs Want End To ‘Chinese Dumping’
by March 22, 2015 6:50 am 142 views
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NUCOR EXECS HEAD TO D.C. TO END ‘CHINESE DUMPING’
Nucor Steel Chairman and CEO John Ferriola and other U.S. steel industry executives are headed to Washington, D.C. this week to testify at a Congressional Steel Caucus “State of Steel” hearing. The executives will discuss the state of the steel industry and how policies on trade are impacting manufacturing, especially in the steel industry, according to American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI).
More specifically, the institute said recently that U.S. steel industry lawyers are planning to launch at least one anti-dumping complaint with the International Trade Commission concerning record levels of Chinese steel imports in the U.S. “Dumping,” or selling abroad below the cost of production to gain market share, is illegal under World Trade Organization law and is punishable with tariffs.
The industry trade association said recently that “the very high level of Chinese steel exports in 2014 and 2015 are of great concern” to the U.S. steel industry. AISI said China’s global exports reached a record level of 93.78 million metric tons of steel in 2014, a 51% increase over the previous year.
“Since 2000, over 5.6 million U.S. manufacturing jobs have been lost because of the lack of aggressive policies to promote manufacturing here in America. A concerted pro-manufacturing policy agenda is needed to reverse this troubling trend,” the AISI said in a policy statement.
“The United States cannot continue to lose its manufacturing base due to market distorting foreign competition or government policies that discourage domestic investment in productive capacity. Should this happen, millions of additional jobs would be lost and our economic strength as a nation would be further damaged,” it added.
Nucor has 1,650 direct jobs with a median wage of $85,000 at three steel mills in Mississippi County. Big River Steel broke ground last fall on its $1.4 billion steel mill and recycling facility, and is expected to employ more than 500 people at an average annual wage of $75,000 when operational in mid-2016.
MANUFACTURING JOBS PIT RIGHT-TO-WORK VS. UNION-SHOP STATES
Highly-watched Creighton University Economist Ernie Goss noted recently on his blog that labor force data is showing that high wage manufacturing industries – normally dominated by unions, such as steel and automobile trade groups – are moving to and expanding in right-to-work states.
“Just last month, Mercedes-Benz announced that, in order to become more cost-competitive, it was moving its U.S. headquarters from New Jersey, a union-shop state, to Georgia, a right-to-work state,” Goss wrote.
“With manufacturing firms becoming increasingly mobile, the pressure to pass right-to-work laws will grow in the years ahead. I expect Missouri to be the next state to leave the union-shop coalition,” Goss said.
Arkansas has long been a right-to-work state, passing Amendment 34 to the Arkansas Constitution in 1947. The Arkansas “right to work” law says no person may be denied employment because of their membership in, affiliation with, resignation from, or refusal to join or affiliate with, a labor union.
‘INNOVATION SUMMIT’ TO HELP ARKANSAS MANUFACTURERS WITH TECH CURVE
Central Arkansas will play host next month to a two-day, first-of-its-kind Arkansas Manufacturing Innovation Summit where companies across the state will be able to spotlight cutting edge manufacturing innovations and technologies, organizers say.
The summit, hosted by Arkansas Manufacturing Solutions (AMS), will be held at the fast-growing Arkansas Regional Innovation Hub in North Little Rock on April 29-30. The event will be held just days ahead of the first Maker Faire festival ever to be held in Central Arkansas in conjunction with the Argenta Arkansas Festival on May 2. Read more here.
MAUMELLE MANUFACTURER TO EXPAND PLANT
Plastic Ingenuity, a plastics packaging manufacturer, is expanding its Maumelle facility. The $2.5 million expansion will add 10 jobs to the company’s plastic food packaging lines and bring total employment at the facility to 60 workers. Read our previous reporting at this link.