Steel Mills

NLMK Says U.S. Division at Risk from Tariffs

May 6, 2018

Russian steelmaker NLMK says it may have to close its U.S. division if it does not receive an exemption from the 25 percent steel tariff.

NLMK USA depends on slab shipments from Russia and cannot source enough slabs in the U.S. to maintain its operations.

“Without exclusion for semi-finished steel slabs, the tariffs will have the perverse effect of killing U.S. steelmaking jobs and potentially putting our company out of business,” said NLMK USA CEO Robert Miller in a letter to Commerce dated March 23, 2018.

“NLMK USA has made numerous attempts to secure slabs domestically, with little success. Between 2016-2017, NLMK Pennsylvania was only able to secure 2 percent of total receipts domestically and was forced to import the remaining amount,” said Miller.

Miller said the company had planned to double its U.S. investment, adding another $664 million between now and 2022. Those plans are now on hold and dependent on the outcome of the exclusion process, he said.

The U.S. operations are comprised of NLMK Indiana, NLMK Pennsylvania, and Sharon Coating and produces slabs, HRC, CRC and HDG. NLMK has steelmaking capacity of about 800,000 metric tons and rolling capacity of around 2.9 million MT. The U.S. division imports more than 2 million MT of slabs annually, with 90 percent of it from its Russian parent.