These jobs are important to the welfare of our country. We can't protect them if our government makes these producers non-competitive by hiking prices for our inputs, while our competitors enjoy low prices. A strong and competitive steel industry is important to the United States, to our industrial economy and to our industry. We depend on it. Most of our member companies use mostly domestic steel, and we clearly recognize the need for a viable steel industry in this country.
Steel is the essential raw material in our products.
It represents from 40 to 70 percent of the cost of manufacturing our products. So steel prices are critical. They are all the more critical because our members compete globally with businesses abroad. If our members have to pay more for steel than our foreign competition, our members will lose orders and be forced to cut back or cease production. Being relatively small companies, most of our members buy steel through service centers, rather than mill direct.