Wire drawers pan U.S. steel trade study

By Staff -- Purchasing, 11/2/2000

The U.S. government's steel trade report offers an unbalanced picture of the role that trade plays in the U.S. market by virtually ignoring steel-consuming industries, one steel-processing industry segment has charged. In a letter sent to Robert LaRussa, Undersecretary of Commerce for International Trade and custodian of the Commerce Department's Global Steel Trade study, the American Wire Producers Association raises questions about the validity of the report's conclusions and recommendations, citing only two references to steel-buying consumers in the 235-page report.

"Nowhere is there the careful or comprehensive assessment of the overall role of steel trade in the U.S. economy that the title of the report suggests," says the letter signed by Peter C. Cronin, president of the American Wire Producers Association. "Steel trade is discussed only in the context of the adverse effect of imports-largely hot-rolled carbon steel flat products-on a restricted sector of the domestic steel industry."

The association letter emphasizes the importance of its members as vendors of wire rod-purchasing 85%-90% of all steel rod sold in the U.S.-and its dependence on foreign-made rod to supplement needs not met by U.S. producers. The letter says that's why wire and wire product imports have increased more than 50% since 1994. It also points out that 13 of the 16 domestic rod mills either own or are affiliated with a wire-producing operation, and notes that the wire rod price accounts for 50%-60% of the total cost of finished wire.