US steel companies are forced to downsize workers four years after Donald Trump promised a new dawn for an industry undergoing hard times.
According to Reuters, Great Lakes Works, once one of Michigan’s largest steel mills, closed down its steelmaking operations and laid off 1,250 workers. A year before the June layoffs, the owner of United States Steel cancelled a plan to invest $600 million in modernisation amid worsening market conditions.
By taking over the White House, Donald Trump began fulfilling this promise by launching a trade war with the European Union. In defending American steelmaking, he imposed a 25% customs duty on imported steel. But this step had the opposite effect, provoking steel prices to rise. As a result, demand from the US automotive industry and other steel consumers has also decreased.
For Michigan, all this has become a serious problem, given its dependence on industry. On a national scale, things are not better. The decline of steel mills began long before the coronavirus pandemic. According to the US Department of Labor, the industry has lost 1,900 jobs since Trump took office.
Trump’s trade war has not helped to increase employment. On the contrary, consumers of steel, including General Motors and Ford Motor, were forced to lay off their employees because of increased spending. In total, Trump’s actions resulted in the loss of 75 thousand jobs in the metalworking industry, and this only by the end of 2019.