美国国家公共电台 NPR From Mills To Manufacturers, Steel Tariffs Produce Winners And Losers

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ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:

It's time for quarterly earnings¹ reports at many companies. And that gives us a chance to compare President Trump²'s rhetoric³ on trade with the reality that American manufacturers are facing. NPR's Jim Zarroli reports.

JIM ZARROLI, BYLINE⁴: At a rally in Pennsylvania earlier this month, President Trump boasted about the comeback of one American industry.

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PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: We're putting our steel workers back to work at clips that nobody would believe.

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TRUMP: U.S. Steel is opening up seven plants.

ZARROLI: In fact, U.S. Steel isn't opening up seven plants. But it has restarted a couple of blast furnaces in Illinois, and it has announced some other capital projects. CEO David Burritt appeared on Fox Business Network recently.

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DAVID BURRITT: So we're absolutely excited for our team and for our customers so that we can provide mined, melted and made-in-the-USA steel.

ZARROLI: Steel companies are among the biggest beneficiaries of President Trump's decision to impose tariffs⁵ on imported metals. The tariffs make imports more expensive, and that's helped drive up steel prices. Mary Lovely is a professor of economics at Syracuse University.

MARY LOVELY: The tariffs are working exactly the way they should. They produce winners and losers.

ZARROLI: Among the losers, she says, are companies that have to buy a lot of metals to be used in manufacturing. Suddenly they have to pay more.

LOVELY: The companies that use steel like aluminum⁶ can manufacturers, they're going to be hurt by this.

ZARROLI: Over the past few weeks, companies such as Caterpillar⁷, Whirlpool and General Motors have said they're having to contend with rising metal prices. The higher costs come at a time when manufacturers are otherwise faring well. William Staber is president of Staber Industries, a small Ohio company that makes washing machines and other products.

WILLIAM STABER: We are so busy that it's out-of-control busy. The orders just keep coming in here, and it's never-ending.

ZARROLI: Still, Staber says the rising price of aluminum and steel is causing him headaches.

STABER: You go get a quote today, it's good through the end of business today period.

ZARROLI: Staber says much of what his company needs to buy are specialty⁸ metals that aren't even made in the United States. He has no choice but to import them, so tariffs make no sense.

STABER: It's all about protecting jobs and saving jobs. OK, I get that. But we're not even making it here. So whose job are you saving when you - we're not doing it here?

ZARROLI: That's a view that Scott Paul is familiar with. The trade group that Paul heads, the Alliance for American Manufacturing, supports the steel and aluminum tariffs. But Paul concedes that many of the manufacturers he represents don't. He tells them the prices should eventually come back down. Paul says the cost of the tariffs is a small part of the $19 trillion U.S. economy.

SCOTT PAUL: Obviously some steel consumers will face some price adjustments. But overall, a lot of the signs point to a healthy economy.

ZARROLI: Paul says the U.S. has longstanding problems with China and other trading partners, and the tariffs are part of a strategy to address them. There may be some pain now, he says, but in the end the benefits will be worth it. Jim Zarroli, NPR News.