Allegheny Technologies is warning that it will be “forced to immediately re-close and eliminate 100 high-paying manufacturing jobs” at its Midland plant if the company does not receive an exemption on steel tariffs.
MIDLAND — Allegheny Technologies Inc. is warning that it will be “forced to immediately re-close and eliminate 100 high-paying manufacturing jobs” at its Midland plant if the company does not receive an exemption on steel tariffs.
President Donald Trump late last month announced a 25 percent tariff on all steel imports, which is problematic for ATI because it imports stainless-steel slabs from Indonesia. The company previously said no domestic companies can supply the stainless steel it needs, meaning ATI is forced to rely on imports for its business.
Late last year, ATI partnered with Chinese company Tsingshan Stainless. Under the partnership, the companies will import stainless-steel slabs from Indonesia and process them at plants in Midland and in Brackenridge, Allegheny County.
The Midland plant, which was initially idled and then completely closed in late 2016, reopened in October and is expected to reach “full monthly capacity” by the second half of this year.
ATI in late March requested an exemption from the U.S. Commerce Department from the tariffs. To hammer home its point, ATI warned that without an exclusion, the 100 jobs will be lost and 200 additional jobs that support the Midland plant “will be at risk.”
The company also again requested an exemption on the 300,000 metric tons of steel slabs it expects to import annually, mostly because there is not a “sufficient and reasonably available supply” domestically.
ATI added that it’s already hired 72 workers since August and that it plans to hire another 30 by the end of this year “should (ATI) obtain the requested exclusion.”
These aren’t minimum-wage jobs, the company said, adding that the approximate compensation for each worker is $125,000 annually, with wages and benefits included. The company said about 80 of the new hires belong to the United Steelworker union.
ATI argued that the imports should be exempted because they “have never presented trade issues for the U.S.” and because ATI was forced to idle its Midland plant in 2016 in “large part due to unfairly traded imports.”