Dirty Little Secret: Letters to the Editor

Steel Market Update received a number of comments regarding our “Dirty Little Secret” article published last week. The first comment comes from Lawrence Cox of McCanch Performance Consulting and formerly with National Steel. Mr. Cox was the individual who was carrying on a debate with Dan DiMicco on LinkedIn. He told SMU:

“Nearly every slab conversion mill in the country represents an operation that formerly possessed a melt shop and whose chain of successive owners decided that it was cheaper to import slab than to melt their own. That’s the fact of the matter. At the same time we hear steel executives who import massive quantities of slabs or band railing against the importation of “unfairly traded steel products” by their customers. Some of the converters are owned by steel companies who have plenty of melting capacity available domestically but who have chosen instead to buy foreign. So if we are to have political dialogue about end users who buy foreign finished coil and line pipe, we need to have equally open and vigorous dialogue about the steel producers who are importing slab, band, and billet and essentially exporting jobs. Until the latter dialogue takes place, I stand by my description of the current situation as the industry’s “Dirty Little Secret”. At least when I imported slabs, I kept my melt shops running full”