Posted on 13 Feb 2015
At a time when steel has become a hot topic of discussion among some at Port Tampa Bay, industry officials from across the nation gathered there this week and discussed their concern over increased imports.
Demand is high for steel in the United States right now due to an upswing in the economy, said experts gathered Thursday for the 26th annual Tampa Steel Conference. But the stronger U.S. dollar means it is cheaper for construction firms and fabricators to purchase imports.
Domestic steel prices are dropping to compete, but there is concern that could lead to layoffs and closed steel mills.
Steel tends to be a very cyclical business as was evidenced at Port Tampa Bay when the Great Recession came knocking. Imports fell off significantly. It is only in the past couple of years that those steel imports have started to rebound, said Greg Lovelace, director of cargo and cruise marketing for Port Tampa Bay.
In fiscal year 2011, Port Tampa Bay took in just 80,120 tons of steel, most of it going to the Florida market. That swelled to 245,346 tons of pipe, rebar and steel coil in fiscal year 2014.
Port Tampa Bay officials continue to work at growing imports, but are also working to form a cluster of steel-related businesses at Port Redwing in the Apollo Beach area. To date, the one company signed up to get it going is Tampa Tank and Florida Structural Steel. The steel fabrication and construction company has committed to building a 120,000 square-foot building at Port Redwing and retrofitting an existing 40,000 square-foot building there.
Raul Alfonso, the port’s executive vice president and chief commercial officer, declined Thursday to elaborate on other companies he is courting to add to that cluster.
At this point, domestic steel manufacturing companies can’t produce enough steel to satisfy demand, some argued during the conference. So even with concerns that some countries are dumping steel on the U.S. market at below-cost prices, sanctions against importers may not be the answer, said Lewis Leibowitz, who practices international trade law.
“The steel industry employs 150,000 in the U.S., but there are 6 million who work in the manufacturing industry and transportation that also use it,” Leibowitz said. “Nothing in the law makes illegal the importation of merchandise that is subject to dumping,” he said.
Despite the concern, not importing is not an option, he said. “The U.S. doesn’t make enough steel to satisfy demand,” so shutting out imports would likely shut down a good portion of those 6 million jobs, he said. Leibowitz said a better option is to make better laws to protect U.S. interests.
The evolving world of global commerce no doubt involves and affects steel and the steel industry, said Richard Chriss, executive director of the American Institute for International Steel. And there has been a lot of work internationally to make trade simpler, faster, easier and cheaper, he said.
Since the official end of the recession six years ago, Chriss said, “we have piled on tens of billions of dollars of additional business regulations. The lingering effect is one of the worst economic downturns of all time.” So, the issues facing the domestic steel business may not be all about cheap imports, he said. That theory, Chriss said, “bears close scrutiny.”
