Primary Metals – The News Desk

2Jan

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Business

Tariffs and the Common Man

With Donald Trump leading the 2024 polls while calling for a 10% universal tariff, the new GOP protectionists are trying to sell this idea as a boon for the working class. The evidence exposes this folly: Trade wars invite painful retaliation, prop up politically favored industries at the expense of others, and raise prices on consumers like an invisible tax. They hurt the average worker.The economic literature on this point is voluminous. To pick one place to start, here was the conclusion of a study of Mr. Trump’s last trade wars, written in 2019 by two Federal Reserve economists: “We find that U.S. manufacturing industries more exposed to tariff increases experience relative reductions in employment as a positive effect from import protection is offset by larger negative effects from r...

Xenophobia Drives Foes of Nippon Steel’s Deal

1Jan

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Health

Xenophobia Drives Foes of Nippon Steel’s Deal

Election-year jitters have the Biden administration and a few swing-state members of Congress from both parties parroting union concerns about Nippon Steel’s takeover of U.S. Steel. The United Steelworkers union favored Cleveland-Cliffs’s offer, which was almost 50% lower than Nippon’s $14.1 billion bid. There is no real cause for concern other than xenophobia and the damage it could do to Cleveland-Cliffs’s position as the sole U.S. producer of electrical steel for transformers and electric vehicles. The rest is imported.Nippon’s steelmaking is at least as advanced as U.S. Steel’s, so technology export control isn’t an issue. National security could be a concern if American mills were shutting down due to unfairly subsidized Japanese exports to the U.S. But Nippon never used gimmicks to ...

Why Every Western Automaker Is Visiting This Remote Part of South Africa

30Dec

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World

Why Every Western Automaker Is Visiting This Remote Part of South Africa

Updated Dec. 30, 2023 12:11 am ETListen to article(2 minutes)MBOMBELA, South Africa—A half-century-old company on the outskirts of South Africa’s Kruger National Park has found itself in a fortuitous spot as Western automakers push to move their electric-vehicle supply chains away from China.Manganese Metal Co., based in the sleepy town of Mbombela, is the largest of just a handful of refiners of battery-grade manganese located outside China. Used mostly for making steel, manganese is increasingly replacing more expensive and harder-to-source minerals such as cobalt and nickel in the lithium-ion batteries that power electric cars, smartphones and laptops.Copyright ©2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8

The Nippon Steel Deal Is Good for America

29Dec

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Health

The Nippon Steel Deal Is Good for America

Democrats and Republicans alike are assailing Nippon Steel’s prospective purchase of U.S. Steel as a threat to national security. The complaints are misplaced. Essential to national security is economic competitiveness, which is strengthened by global connections such as inward foreign direct investment.A more competitive economy is better able to fund the military and ameliorate the inevitable guns-for-butter trade-offs. Consider the Cold War. Fast labor-productivity growth after World War II expanded America’s tax base to fund investments in defense, science and space exploration. America eventually won the Cold War largely because the Soviet empire couldn’t deliver the goods. The Berlin Wall fell in part because people behind the Iron Curtain yearned for Mercedes sedans rather than Tra...

23Dec

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Health

Biden’s Foolish Snub of Nippon Steel

Nippon Steel’s proposed $15 billion acquisition of U.S. Steel “appears to deserve serious scrutiny,” the White House said Thursday. The statement came after an outcry from protectionist lawmakers, including Sen. John Fetterman (D., Pa.), who have cited union and national-security concerns and vowed to block the sale. The anti-Japanese business rhetoric is reminiscent of the 1980s, when U.S.-Japan trade tensions threatened to undermine a critically important bilateral alliance during the Cold War.U.S. politicians’ unjustified criticisms of the deal could strain relations between the U.S. and Japan and weaken their collaboration on trade and economic security. The White House should work with allies on economic and military cooperation, not criticize them.Copyright ©2023 Dow Jones & Com...

23Dec

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Health

The Nippon Steel Protectionists – WSJ

The news that Japan’s Nippon Steel will purchase U.S. Steel has sent much of Washington into a political fit, and President Biden is now registering his great concern, teeing up a government investment committee to review the sale. Public service reminder: Japan is arguably America’s most important ally as a bulwark against China.The White House on Thursday dispatched national economic adviser Lael Brainard to float a review of the deal by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, or Cfius. The statement called U.S. Steel “a core component” of domestic steel production that is “critical to our national security.” Ms. Brainard also tossed an encomium to the United Steelworkers union: “President Biden believes union workers are the best workers in the world.”Copyright ©2023 ...

Rept Battero Energy Shares Rise in Hong Kong Trading Debut

18Dec

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World

Rept Battero Energy Shares Rise in Hong Kong Trading Debut

Dec. 17, 2023 11:19 pm ETShares of Chinese lithium-ion battery maker Rept Battero rose in their Hong Kong trading debut, indicating that investor demand for companies associated with electric-vehicle space remains buoyant.Rept Battero climbed as much as 7.4% on Monday from its initial public offering price of 18.30 Hong Kong dollars (US$2.34).Copyright ©2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8

Platinum Miners Face Demand Downturn as EV Transition Revs Up

13Dec

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World

Platinum Miners Face Demand Downturn as EV Transition Revs Up

Miners of platinum metals are likely to face plummeting demand in the coming years, victim to the automotive industry’s transition to battery-electric vehicles.A decline in demand could happen as soon as 2025-26, Citi analysts say in a research note, forecasting “a structural demand downturn in a scale and speed hardly seen across the commodity markets.”Copyright ©2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8

Anglo American Sees Lower Production; Targets to Cut Cost by $1 Bln Next Year

8Dec

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World

Anglo American Sees Lower Production; Targets to Cut Cost by $1 Bln Next Year

Anglo American said it expects lower production next year amid near-term constraints and volatile market conditions, and that it plans to lower costs by $1 billion.The multinational diversified miner said Friday its output for 2023 increased by around 3% on year, driven by a ramp-up of operations at its Peruvian copper project Quellaveco and solid iron ore production, which offset lower platinum metals and diamonds production.Copyright ©2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8

5Dec

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Business

Tariffs and the Price of Your Beer

President Trump ostensibly waged trade wars to aid American industry, but the evidence is that his tariffs have harmed many U.S. businesses not on his politically favored list. One example is the beverage industry, which has had to swallow the cost of tariffs on aluminum for its cans.New data from Harbor Aluminum, produced for the Beer Institute, shows how these costs have continued to climb. Mr. Trump imposed 10% tariffs on aluminum imports in March 2018, citing dubious national-security concerns. Through September 2023, the U.S. beverage industry paid nearly $2.2 billion in tariff costs, according to the report. Copyright ©2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8