Trump wants to put a tariff of 60% on chinese steel iirc so maybe US steel will be competitive.
A minor quibble, but that’s not competitive, that’s subsidized. Now, arguably that’s because Chinese steel is subsidized, but how much is the question.
China is not a major source of steel imports. As far as I know tariffs on China do not apply to Taiwan.
China produces around 50% of global steel and that has strongly impacted the cost of steel because of the subsides. I assume that is where the national security implication arises from. You let a Japanese company compete against subsidised Chinese ones then the Japanese one gets overrun and then USA eventually has to buy Chinese steel.
There is an IMF paper on the distorting effects of Chinese subsides. IIRC it has a study of the steel market.
The question is how will tariffs on Chinese steel help the US domestic producers when already less than 1% of US steel consumption comes from China.
The cheapness of Chinese steel makes it attractive compared to US steel.
ETA: Basically the competition is Chinese steel.
Wouldn’t tariffs on Chinese steel also affect goods made with it?
The IMF paper discusses both upstream and downstream effects of the subsides.
Read parts of it. So, if the effect of China’s home subsidies is weak, and we don’t get much steel from China, there is a risk that Trump’s tariff-happiness will raise prices here for basically no reason?
Well the reason is national security. To be honest it’s an economic war.
It’s also something that is happening around the western world lately. Canada put a 25% tariff effective October. Aluminium is another metal that is targeted.
Nippon had promised to make significant capital investments in US Steel after the acquisition and preserve jobs and benefits. US Steel may well face short term layoffs unless some other outsider puts in money.
Maybe Cleveland-Cliffs will make another offer for US Steel? They bought a major Canadian steel producer (Stelco) in 2024 which had at one time been owned by US Steel and were outbid last year by Nippon for US Steel. They can probably buy US Steel cheaply now.
Jaspess’s ultra-MAGA ex briefly worked at a Cleveland-Cliffs plant. The “briefly” is basically his fault, so in retribution he put a MAGA curse on them declaring that they’re gonna fail. They failed so badly that they expanded the local plant.
So now when we drive by, we joke about the “failure” in the air there.
Best thing that might happen for US Steel might be their acquisition by Cleveland-Cliffs. Politically acceptable as they would remain American.
The US Steel shareholders and their board have been backed into a corner. They can’t sell to an entity outside USA so realistically they either sell to CC at CC’s price or not sell and have operational issues. They lose either way.
Exactly. Their shareholders are not pleased.
Mark Cuban reached out to see if he could fund her on Blue Sky.
Every accusation is a confession
And how long has this “reporter” had this information? I’m not denying the story, but it seems quite self-serving to keep this info for a book instead of releasing it, so while my feelings about Trump remain the same, my feelings toward this reporter have dropped from indifferent to “what a butt.”