OCR Text |
Show Your Man In Washington By U.S. Senator Orrin G. Hatch American Steel: An Uncertain Future coal prices will lead to even greater steel costs. Productivity, which has traditionally been the answer to rising costs, can no longer be relied upon as the panacea of industry ills. Productivity under existing ex-isting conditions has reached its optimum efficiency. effi-ciency. As a result 20 percent per-cent of the U.S. steel manufacturing capability is now standing idle. This unused capacity has cut into steel profits, but the pattern of industry price increases and large wage hikes for workers is continuing. conti-nuing. Major steel companies com-panies have laid off thousands of workers in recent weeks because of loss of the domestic steel markets, and the industry is now appealing to the President for import protections. pro-tections. A recent White House report by the Council Coun-cil on Wage and Price No competition in any world industry is more aggressive or ruthless than that found in the world steel industry. Until recently U.S. steel makers have been global leaders in producing the highest quality product, in the greatest quantity at the lowest price. But in the last two decades, the developing nations of the world have suddenly begun to realize that they too can play the steel game, and the old steel-producing steel-producing nations have learned some lessons that make them tenacious competitors. com-petitors. With cheaper labor and government subsidies, sub-sidies, foreign steel makers are competing with and beating the prices of American steel producers. The competiton is so in-, in-, tense that foreign steel producers, supported by their governments, willingly will-ingly dump their steel on the U.S. market at prices Stability suggests that import im-port controls will provide little benefit to an industry which the report says is "beset by a wide range of problems that have been developing for nearly 20 years. " In the United States Senate a coalition of Senators from steel-producing steel-producing states is considering con-sidering a wide range of legislation and regulation to encourage steel buyers to use domestically-produced domestically-produced steel. Senator Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah) is a member of that coalition. coali-tion. He has some specific ideas based on Utah steel production experience which will be discussed in next week's column. below the cost of production produc-tion and delivery. They absorb the costs of dumping dump-ing to keep their people working and achieve a stronger sales position which could defeat American steel makers and result in a successful money-earning industry. U.S. finished-steel prices have risen 79 percent per-cent since 1972, outpacing all other domestic industrial in-dustrial prices by. over" 24 "" percent. These price increases in-creases have been one of the major fuels of inflation, infla-tion, and the future does not look much better. Large pay increases for steel and coal workers, and the resulting higher |