AISI | American Iron And Steel Institute Welcomes Administration’s Focus On Revitalizing American Manufacturing

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For Immediate Release

December 17, 2009

AMERICAN IRON AND STEEL INSTITUTE WELCOMES ADMINISTRATION’S FOCUS ON REVITALIZING AMERICAN MANUFACTURING

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) today praised President Obama and the Administration for their focus on revitalizing American manufacturing as outlined in a new report issued yesterday, “A Framework for Revitalizing American Manufacturing.”

“The Administration’s focus on revitalizing America’s manufacturing sector in order to create much needed jobs here in the U.S. is welcomed by the steel industry,” said Thomas J. Gibson, president and CEO of AISI. “As the report states, the domestic steel industry contributes $350 billion annually to the economy and directly employs over 165,000 people, supporting 1.2 million jobs. The steel industry, with its technology advancements and productivity improvements, is already a part of this revitalization of American manufacturing.”

Gibson said the report also recognizes that “the steel and auto industries have traditionally been the backbone of the American manufacturing sector. While both industries are in difficult and sometimes painful transition periods, new advances provide hope for a strong and vibrant future.”

“We welcome in particular the Administration’s focus in the report on enforcing our laws against unfair trade, investing in transportation infrastructure and encouraging legal, tax and regulatory regimes that support manufacturing,” Gibson said. “We believe these are critical areas where Federal government policies have a direct impact on preserving and growing jobs in manufacturing. We urge the Administration to continue to aggressively enforce our laws against injurious dumping and foreign government subsidies to prevent further losses of manufacturing jobs. We also urge the Administration and the Congress to move expeditiously to pass a new multi-year surface transportation infrastructure bill. New investment in highways and bridges is essential to our nation’s competitiveness and will provide a much need stimulus to demand for steel and other construction materials. This is particularly important in that every direct job in the steel industry generates seven jobs in other sectors of the economy,” Gibson said.

“We also support actions by the Administration to help reduce the burdens of rising health care, energy, litigation and regulatory costs, and to limit increases in federal and state taxes – all of which make it harder for U.S. manufacturers to compete,” Gibson said. “We appreciate that the Framework report states the desire to ‘not place undue burden on those who wish to manufacture products in America.’

“We look forward to working with the President and members of his Administration toward achieving these common objectives,” Gibson said.

AISI serves as the voice of the North American steel industry in the public policy arena and advances the case for steel in the marketplace as the material of choice. AISI plays a lead role in the development and application of new steels and steelmaking technology. AISI is comprised of 24 member companies, including integrated and electric furnace steelmakers, and 138 associate and affiliate members who are suppliers to or customers of the steel industry. AISI's member companies represent over 75 percent of both U.S. and North American steel capacity. For more news about steel and its applications, view AISI’s Web site at www.steel.org.

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