By Jonathan Barnes
During the presidential race, both sides declared opposition to a pending sale of legacy steelmaker U.S. Steel to Japan-based Nippon. The United Steelworkers and Rust Belt politicians on both sides of the aisle have pre-cast Nay votes on the would-be sale as well, but they’re all wrong.
U.S. Steel has been limping along for decades and before the Japanese were poised to buy it, the Russians were, many years back. U.S. Steel needs to be bought for an infusion of self-awareness, which Nippon would likely provide.
U.S. Steel hasn’t been the nation’s largest steelmaker for a long time, and may never be again. I’m personally and professionally familiar with the rise and fall of its fortunes being a reporter in Pittsburgh—my dad and great-uncle both worked for the company. I’ve also written about the steel industry a lot over decades of business reporting.
Long ago, perhaps even before its collapse into itself in the 1980s when the company laid off more than 90 percent of its white-collar workforce, U.S. Steel lost itself. more
This is a departure from the past, but we should weigh all manufacturing decisions from the default starting position of,”Is this good for America and Americans?”
I would also like to see more urgency in keeping goods and manufacturing in-house. The initial premise should be that within 5 years we will be involved in a major war, if all imports were cut off, could we supply the military with the requisite raw materials, technology, and manufacturing sites to make it self-sufficient? If the answer is NO, then working towards that end is a priority.
If we could keep the various manufacturing unions under control (I don’t know a thing about them except that they seem to be connected to high prices), it would be ideal if every sort of manufacturing be done again in the U.S., if quality is kept very high. I’d prefer to buy American-made goods and let import tariffs pay for our Federal gov’t.
I remember — and not so far back — that people weighed the cost of buying domestic products over imports because the duty on imports often didn’t provide enough incentive. But then unions’ demands increased and quality fell.
If US Steel is sold, better Japan than Russia in case we really go nuclear…
The world sucks. Lets hope and pray Trump makes it better.
U.S. Steel is a union heavy dinosaur. It was formed from a conglomerate of a couple manufacturers who all catered to the construction peeps back in like 1901. High rises, bridges etc. They’ve never evolved. It’s not like their making military grade anything. I’m surprised the Japs want them. I’d rather keep them U.S. owned. But they’re stupid.
“We’re bigger than U.S. Steel”, Hyman Roth
There’s been a Godfather marathon on all weekend…
So what do the Japanese know about steel making that we don’t, that makes them think they can make a profit where we didn’t? Or are they just buying the name? At any rate I would rather buy our steel from the Japanese than the Russians, or worse, the Chinese.
“At any rate I would rather buy our steel from the Japanese than the Russians, or worse, the Chinese”
Why would you think that’s an option? It’s not.
Also
“So what do the Japanese know about steel making that we don’t, that makes them think they can make a profit where we didn’t?”
Because they’ll bust the union.
Steel and most other “rust belt” industries were union strangled and government regulated to death.