US tariffs hit domestic companies with old ovens

President Donald Trump's foreign steel tariffs have accelerated the fall of some American businesses he has pledged to help. This boosted US production at a time when the global economy was cooling, undermining demand. Tariffs drove prices down, leading to a sharp rift between companies like Nucor Corp., which use cheaper electric arc furnaces to convert scrap into steel products, and companies, including US Steel Corp., with more expensive blast furnaces. ...

Since Trump announced tariffs 16 months ago, US Steel has lost nearly 70% of its market value, or $ 5.6 billion, and halted two American ovens in mid-June that could not profit at the lowest prices since 2016. of the year. Meanwhile, Nucor, after a roughly 20% cut, advertised $ 2.5 billion in expansion projects.

The president's actions likely "hastened" the inevitable "evolution," Nucor CEO John Ferriola said in an interview last month. “Will some companies get hurt? Absolutely".

Last July, Trump stood on a makeshift stage at an American steel mill in Granite City, Illinois, beaming as workers cheered on tariffs. At this point, the company had already relaunched one of the two blast furnaces in Granite City and promised that the second would be operational soon.

“The workers are back to work, and we are again pouring new American steel into the spine of our country,” Trump said during the one-hour program. "US Steel is back".

Since then, however, there has been a slightly different result.

With stronger steel companies aggressively ramping up their capacity to grab market share, falling demand has led to older and more expensive blast furnaces at US Steel and AK Steel Holding Corp. struggling to compete, even if foreign steel is pushed out of the equation.