Quote:
Originally Posted by RIROCKHOUND
How about instead of the TDS bull#^&#^&#^&#^&, you try and contribute a thought or opinion?
Your in the trades, and you look to do great work from your posts.
Is a 25% tariff on Steel and Aluminum good for the country? We can maybe ramp up steel production (it sort of came up in 2018 when Trump tried this) but we don't have the raw materials to do that for Aluminum as most of the Bauxite (the ore) is found in more tropical climates. How about if we further tariff Canadian lumber?
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Steel is currently at less than capacity and tariffs will do nothing other than drive up prices for the cheapest steel that is produced more economically elsewhere (Nucor rebar prices increased $2 per hundred weight last week on the threat alone)
Steel.org analysis published weekly
In the week ending on February 8, 2025, domestic raw steel production was 1,675,000 net tons while the capability utilization rate was 75.2 percent. Production was 1,726,000 net tons in the week ending February 8, 2024, while the capability utilization then was 77.7 percent. The current week production represents a 3.0 percent decrease from the same period in the previous year. Production for the week ending February 8, 2025 is up 1.1 percent from the previous week ending February 1, 2025 when production was 1,656,000 net tons and the rate of capability utilization was 74.4 percent.
Aluminum tariffs if applied to all imported aluminum will increase domestic prices and likely reduce exports.
Aluminum industry doesn’t produce only US production. Aluminum.org is a North American entity.
Canada because they have abundant cheap hydroelectric power is the major producer of aluminum from bauxite.
Both the USA and Canada further process the raw material into finished products. This is either used in the USA or exported.
Bauxite which aluminum is produced from is mined in Australia, Guinea, India, Brazil and China.
The USA mines produce less than 1% of the world’s bauxite.
On the lumber market
Canadian mills are closing along with USA mills.
The day of the small sawmill growing into a bigger and bigger company are gone.
The modern wood industry has timber harvesting by machines, logs get a coded identification, log transportation is the same, mills have no humans inside during operation.(the sawyer is in a booth and optimization is by computer)
Workers only do repairs and maintenance.
The capital costs are large and margins are small.
It looks like the lumber industry will be controlled by several very large corporations who will have monopolies.
The current regimes elimination of regulations on large corporations will accelerate that.
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