U.S. Steel Companies Face Downturn Despite Trump Claims of Revival

[dherd]

steel industry employment was 146,300 as of November — 4 percent lower than it was four years ago, according to the American Iron and Steel Institute.

“We fully expect the players in the steel supply chain to have weaker years in 2019,” said Philip Gibbs, a metals analyst at KeyBanc in Ohio.

Despite strong earnings in 2018, the stock prices of steel companies have been in a deep slump as investors fret that they are being propped up by government support that will be temporary. In the last year, shares of AK Steel are down 56 percent, US Steel is down 46 percent, Steel Dynamics is down 29 percent and Nucor’s stock is down 18 percent.

“They were doing very poorly when I took office, and now they’re doing very well,” Mr. Trump said of American steel makers before boarding Marine One this month. “Our steel industry was dying, and now it’s very vibrant.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/14/us/politics/steel-companies-trump.html

 

[Raoul Duke MU]

Despite strong earnings in 2018, the stock prices of steel companies have been in a deep slump as investors fret that they are being propped up by government support that will be temporary.

This is what we cannot do. We must have long-term plans to re-establish our metals industry to meet our needs and be competitive. Of course, cutting taxes by trillions of dollars makes that kind of help difficult.