Cold Finished Steel Bar Institute Becomes Latest to Recommend 232 Action to Offset Steel Dumping
The Cold Finished Steel Bar Institute (CFSBI) on Sept. 13 added its name to the litany of individuals and organizations urging retaliation against dumped steel pursuant to the Trump administration’s ongoing Section 232 “national security” investigation into steel imports. In a letter to President Donald Trump, the organization encouraged “early action” to protect the U.S. steel industry’s ability to supply materials critical to U.S. national defense and infrastructure requirements. “Essentially any product that contains a motor or moving part contains one or more components made from cold finished steel bar,” wrote the organization’s chairman, William Geary. The group’s member companies produce materials vital to a “wide range” of defense applications, including attack helicopters, armored vehicles, guns, smart bombs, aircraft and ammunition, as well as materials for critical infrastructure applications including automobiles, bridge parts, oil and gas equipment, and wind turbines, CFSBI said.
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Frequently supported by government subsidies, China and other countries have built “substantial excess production capacity,” Geary said. “We face competitors which never have to make a profit to survive, thanks to government handouts. At the same time, the U.S. market for cold finished steel bar has declined precipitously.” U.S. demand for cold finished steel bar has dropped from about 2.5 million tons to about 1 million tons yearly over the past 25 years, Geary said, noting that member companies wouldn’t be able to survive and produce critical defense materials unless they are on “sound financial footing in their commercial sales.” CFSBI member companies include Nucor, Optima Specialty Steel and ArcelorMittal Long Carbon. “The bottom line is that we need help, and soon,” Geary said. “We respectfully urge that any remedy determined in the Section 232 case apply not only to the cold finished steel bar we produce, but also to downstream component parts made by our customers which are then incorporated into subassemblies, motors, a multitude of industrial and infrastructure applications, and of course, various weapons and defense systems, which are absolutely critical to the protection of our country.”