Transportation and Infrastructure

An efficient transportation network directly impacts the competitiveness of the domestic steel industry, its customers and suppliers, and American manufacturing as a whole. AISI urges the President and Congress to take the following actions to rebuild our nation’s infrastructure:

• The American steel industry relies upon the nation’s road, rail, and water transportation network to move its raw materials and steel products. Inefficient and delayed modes of transportation, caused by limited public investments in recent years, hinder the competitiveness of the American steel industry. Further, the products we manufacture are essential for our nation’s ports and waterways, drinking water and wastewater infrastructure, electricity grid and electric vehicle systems.
• AISI is proud to have supported the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. It funds key infrastructure investments, including extensions of important Department of Transportation programs to repair and modernize our national system of roads and bridges over the next five years. Overall, this bill would provide a tremendous boost to steel, as demand for American steel could increase by as much as five million tons for every $100 billion of new investment. It will modernize our national infrastructure, strengthen our economy, and create new jobs. We are prepared to work with key federal agencies as it is implemented.
• It is also essential that iron and steel materials procured for federal infrastructure programs be produced in the United States and that the entire steelmaking supply chain benefits from procurement funded by U.S. tax dollars. Using Buy America and Buy American statutes also ensures that taxpayer funds are used to support the domestic steel industry and its employees, rather than those of competitor nations. Doing so will provide benefits to the global environment by recognizing the domestic industry’s leadership in terms of energy and carbon efficient steel production.