Brown Testifies on Behalf Of Ohio Steel Companies at Hearing on Hot-Rolled Steel Products

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) testified on behalf of the entire U.S. hot-rolled steel industry and its thousands of Ohio workers, urging the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) to extend anti-dumping and countervailing duties (AD/CVD) to ensure U.S. Steel, Cleveland-Cliffs, Nucor, Steel Dynamics, SSAB, and their workers, get sufficient relief from unfair trade practices of foreign competitors. Hot-rolled steel imports have harmed the domestic industry and will continue to do so if the orders are lifted, especially the workers at Cleveland-Cliffs’ Cleveland, Toledo, and Middletown facilities.

Brown was the only senator to testify at the hearing.

 “These are some of the most skilled and dedicated workers anywhere, but they can’t compete against dumped and subsidized imports, no matter how hard they work,” said Brown during his testimony. “When foreign competitors use unfair trade practices to get ahead and put our companies out of business, our trade laws are supposed to help level the playing field. That’s all we’re asking for – a level playing field.”

For years, workers in the U.S. steel industry have found themselves at a severe competitive disadvantage due to unfairly-traded foreign imports.

Earlier this year, following testimony by Brown, the ITC ruled in favor of American steel workers by recommending that President Biden extend anti-dumping and countervailing duties (AD/CVD) to ensure U.S. Steel, Cleveland-Cliffs, Nucor, and Steel Dynamics, and their workers, get sufficient relief from unfair trade practices of foreign competitors. At that hearing, Brown testified on behalf of the entire U.S. flat-rolled steel industry and its thousands of Ohio workers, urging the ITC to side with steel workers. Imports of flat-rolled steel have harmed the domestic industry and will continue to do so if the orders are lifted, with the workers at Cleveland-Cliffs’ Cleveland and Middletown facilities especially impacted.

In 2016, Brown testified before the ITC during a final determination hearing on antidumping and countervailing duties on cold-rolled, hot-rolled, and corrosion-resistant steel flat products. The three cases were filed by U.S. steel companies, including: U.S. Steel, AK Steel, ArcelorMittal, and Nucor, all of which have Ohio locations and together employ more than 8,000 Ohioans. Following Brown’s testimony, the ITC issued a unanimous finding that the U.S. steel industry has been injured by cold-rolled steel imports from China and Japan. This positive decision was good news for Ohio steel companies and resulted in new antidumping and countervailing duty orders against the countries’ steel imports.

Brown’s remarks, as prepared for delivery can be found below:

Chairman Johanson and members of the Commission, thank you for the opportunity to testify on behalf of the entire U.S. flat-rolled steel industry and the thousands of Ohio workers represented by the petitioners in the hot-rolled steel case before you.   

Nothing has changed since the last time I appeared before the Commission: we still face the threat of dumped and subsidized imported hot rolled steel destroying jobs in the United States.

Our steel companies are critical to our nation’s infrastructure, our national security, and our global competitiveness. Tens of thousands of Americans, including many Ohioans, rely on this industry for good-paying, middle class jobs. 

In this case, thousands of Ohio union steelworkers at Cleveland-Cliffs’ facilities in Cleveland and Middletown will be directly affected by this decision.

I’ve been to Cleveland-Cliffs’ mills. Cliffs has made significant investments in its Cleveland Works plant. Earlier this year, the company invested approximately $200 million to reline one of its two blast furnaces there. This investment will result in more than two decades of useful life for that blast furnace, supporting 2,000 jobs at Cleveland Works.

And in November of 2020, Cleveland-Cliffs completed its $1 billion Direct Reduction plant.

This plant is the world’s most technologically advanced direct reduction plant, producing hot briquetted iron that emits 70%   less greenhouse gases than imported pig iron from Russia and Brazil. HBI (H-B-I) made in Toledo is used in Cliffs furnaces across its plants to make hot-rolled steel, which is why these orders are so important.

The United States produces some of the cleanest steel made anywhere in the world, and American steel will become a critical input in the growing renewable energy industrial economy.

But our steel manufacturers will struggle in the face of dumped and subsidized imports if these duties are not reimposed. If we refuse to provide the relief they need to compete, thousands of workers could be laid off, as happened in 2015 and 2016.

The Commission plays a critical role in enforcing U.S. trade laws.

You’re being asked to examine injury in the flat-rolled steel sector today, on hot-rolled steel.

The domestic flat products steel sector clearly met the statutory definition for “injury” in the original case. And global conditions have not changed in the five years since. 

Subsidized steel imports caused serious harm to this industry before, and the outcome will be the same today, were duties lifted.

ITC knows the impact unfair trade practices have on American steel. Given the ITC’s new agency-wide commitment to looking at the regional and demographic effects of trade practices, I urge the ITC to note the disproportionate impact these issues have had and will continue having on steel-producing states, like Ohio.

If dumped and subsidized steel imports are once again allowed to come into the U.S. market unchecked, it will be impossible for American companies to generate profits, to pay workers  good wages, and to make the capital investments required for the continued competitiveness of U.S. steel. 

Every time a mill closes, we lose another critical link in our domestic supply chain forever. And Ohioans know all too well what this closure does to entire communities.

I’ve talked with Ohio steelworkers about their jobs and their lives. I’ve met their families and heard their stories – their hopes, their dreams, and their fears about what happens when work disappears. These are some of the most skilled and dedicated workers anywhere. But they can’t compete against dumped and subsidized imports, no matter how hard they work. 

When foreign competitors use unfair trade practices to get ahead and put our companies out of business, our trade laws are supposed to help level the playing field. 

That’s all we’re asking for – a level playing field. 

I would also like to briefly address the interplay of AD/CVD duties and trade measures under Section 232.

Title VII is intended to prevent material injury to American companies and workers caused by unfairly traded imports. If revoking AD and CVD orders is likely to lead to the continuation or recurrence of material injury, then domestic producers are entitled to relief, period. 

Section 232, on the other hand, gives the President sole authority to limit imports in situations where national security concerns are at stake.

Because Presidents can lift 232 measures at any time, companies cannot rely on Section 232 relief being in place well into the future. AD/CVD relief gives much greater certainty.

If AD/CVD relief is eliminated with the expectation that Section 232 measures will remain in place – and those measures are later weakened – the potential harm to the domestic industry would likely be immediate and irreversible.

I implore you to draw the same conclusion that you drew in 2016. The facts support that decision, and thousands of workers in Ohio depend on it. 

I will be submitting a letter for the record that my fellow Ohio Senator Rob Portman and I led.

It makes the same argument I am making to you today:  removing these tariffs only rewards bad behavior by foreign actors and costs us steel jobs in Ohio and throughout the nation.

Thank you.

###