Reshoring of Domestic Manufacturing – The topic of Reshoring continues to find its way into broad based discussions as to the overall domestic manufacturing sector. As manufacturing companies that had previously made decisions to move manufacturing out of the USA are waking up to the fact that not all of the “savings” that drove these decisions were actually realized, some are re-assessing those decisions. This is certainly a positive development and one that we trust will continue to gain momentum in the coming years.
Moving manufacturing back onshore is certainly not a quick process and not one that will likely see a concentrated expansion of the overall manufacturing sector in the near term. These discussions do however spur optimism as to the possibilities to see a steady expansion of our domestic manufacturing sector and the embracing of the fact that we are indeed a Manufacturing Economy.
For 67 years, Sko-Die has been a strong advocate of a strong and expanding manufacturing economy. Our customers enjoy the benefits of high quality, high value manufacturing produced locally and delivered nationwide and abroad. We continue to support initiatives that promote and support domestic manufacturing and are confident that any Reshoring efforts will have a positive effect on our overall economy.
Electrical Steel Trade Cases proceed – The cases that were filed against select Global producers of Electrical Steel continue to make their way through the review and decision process. As previously discussed, the last benchmark event that occurred was that the ITC provided a preliminary injury ruling that allowed the case against six Non Oriented Electrical Steel (NOES) producers to continue. The US Commerce Department is now in the process of determining any antidumping margins that will be levied on imports from these producing Mills.
As reported in the March 21st edition of American Metal Market, “AK Steel is pleased that the U.S. Commerce Department has preliminarily determined that China’s non-oriented electrical steel industry has benefitted from massive subsidies, and that the Commerce Department has imposed preliminary duties on NOES from China.
AMM further reports that “The Commerce Department’s preliminary determination in the anti-dumping duty investigation is due May 15th. Final determinations in both the anti-dumping and subsidy cases are due by July 30th.”
The net effect of this process, which began back in the fall of 2013, is that the producers of NOES products from the named countries have scaled back or ceased their exports of these products into the US, pending final duty decisions.
Sko-Die continues to manage our supply base to ensure the consistent supply of all grades of Electrical Steel to our customers. Though these trade cases will certainly affect the landscape of which specific mill products will be readily available, our relationships and sourcing strategy serve to ensure that these actions will not have a detrimental effect on our ability to continue to support all our of customers’ needs.