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By Bob Weaver
America's steel industry says they are on a collision course for disaster, but global market promoters say they're just crying wolf.
America's rust belt, they claim, will be getting rustier.
The United States will likely import a record amount of steel this year, a sign that it needs to address unfair trade practices by China and other Asian exporters, according to the American Iron and Steel Institute.
Steel imports could reach 46 million tons in 2006. The previous record of 41.5 million tons set in 1998.
China has kept its currency artificially low against the dollar, which makes its exports to the United States less expensive.
The Census Bureau reported that imports jumped 45 percent through October of this year, to 38.8 million tons, up from 26.8 million tons in the same period in 2005. The US imported an additional 3.4 million tons in November, according to the AISI.
AISI says the increase stems from countries with "a history of unfair trading," including China, India and other Asian countries.
Imports from Taiwan have increased 213 percent this year.
Andrew Sharkey, president and CEO of AISI, said the increase from China "underscores the need" for the United States and other North American governments to "more aggressively press China to abandon its currency manipulation, export subsidies, trade barriers and other anticompetitive practices that deny North American steel producers a level playing field."
"It is imperative that the problem of unfair trade, which continues to confront this and many other U.S. manufacturing industries, be fully and firmly addressed," Sharkey said.
Dozens of American steel companies have closed or gone bankrupt, many negating long-promised retirement and health benefits.
However, the Cato Institute's Center for Trade Policy Studies, said last month, "By every relevant financial yardstick, the industry is performing phenomenally and investors are bullish about its future."
CATO favors globalized markets and "fair trade."
Globalized marketers have said this past year, it's time to get over whining about that which already is.
The so-called exporting of millions of US jobs abroad to cheap labor with few benefits and control is now a fact of life, supported by American government and corporations during the past 25 years.
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