Nucor Corp. and Cleveland-Cliffs, the two largest steel companies in the United States, urged the Biden administration or the next administration to impose more trade restrictions against Mexico to prevent countries like China from evading the steel tariff restrictions of Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act, according to press reports.
“We think it's the first step that the administration put in place a few weeks ago with Mexico, but it's not enough,” Nucor Corp. Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Leon Topalian said in a conference with investors, according to the reports from the local Mexican press that cite the Bloomberg agency.
“You're going to see Nucor continue to advocate vocally in Washington — regardless of the administration — to create a level playing field that protects this industry from illegally dumped and subsidized steel from arriving at the shores of the United States,” added the CEO of the largest steel company in the United States.
Separately, Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. CEO Lourenco Goncalves said “For too long, Mexico has enabled countries like China, Japan, South Korea, Brazil and several others to get away with dumping steel into our domestic markets using Mexico as a transshipment ground with zero or no value-added”. “It's great to see action being taken, but we need a lot more,” Goncalves reiterated.
Nucor’s CEO said he still has concerns about rebar and other steel products including electrical conduit that need to be brought into control. Meanwhile, Cliffs' top executive accused Mexico of practicing “bad behavior” in steel markets by taking advantage of North American trade agreements.
On July 10, the Joe Biden administration announced that together with Mexico, 25 percent tariffs on steel exports from Mexico are applied to steel not “melted and poured” in the USMCA region. This is in yet another attempt to prevent China from evading the levies of Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act.