We are long overdue as a nation to say enough is enough. Since last year, over 30 million tons of cheap steel imports from Asia, Russia, Brazil, and other nations reached U.S. shores. These countries have been dumping their steel on the U.S. market since mid-1997 when an economic crisis spread from Asia to Russia and across the Pacific to Brazil. Our steel industry, which has fought hard and has spent billions to remain competitive in this business, needs the help of the Congress and the President to ensure that it survives. When it once took over ten hours to produce a ton of steel, today U.S. companies make steel in less than four hours.
Some facilities report producing a ton in less than two hours.
Due to cheap foreign steel prices, U.S. steel companies sale of steel has dropped significantly. Their production of raw steel declined by 19 percent since March as order books shrank. As a result, companies are being forced to cut production hours, lay off workers, and now some like Weirton Steel in the Ohio Valley are threatened with bankruptcy. The time has come to level the playing field so our steel companies can fairly compete in our own market. It s time to stop putting 24 steelworkers on the street each day because of cheap imports flooding into our country.