Steel Products

PMA Warns of Lost Business Due to Section 232 Tariffs

March 21, 2018

A survey by the Precision Metalforming Association prior to the Section 232 announcement showed metalforming manufacturing companies expecting little change in business conditions and steady orders for the next three months.

PMA President Roy Hardy, however, said the ensuing decision to impose tariffs will raise steel prices, impacting customers’ sourcing and harming the domestic metalforming industry.

“PMA received most of the responses for this month’s report prior to the U.S. government’s announcement that the United States was imposing 25 percent tariffs on steel imports and 10 percent tariffs on aluminum imports,” said Hardy.

“Unfortunately, the tariffs will likely cause the United States to become an island of high steel prices that will result in metalforming manufacturers’ customers sourcing products from our overseas competitors and importing them into the United States tariff-free. Our members went through this in 2002 when the U.S. government imposed tariffs on steel imports leading to the loss of 19 percent of all metalforming manufacturers in the United States due to high steel prices and business lost to overseas competitors.

“This is why PMA’s advocacy team is working diligently in Washington to convince the government to terminate these tariffs as quickly as possible.”

The PMA Business Conditions Report showed a dip in average daily shipping levels in March. Only 3 percent of companies reported workforce on short time or layoff, down from 4 percent in February.

March’s PMA report was based on a sampling of 123 metalforming companies in the U.S. and Canada.