Iowa manufacturers are being squeezed by the highest domestic steel prices in four years, driven by high tariffs and tight domestic supplies. Peter Orazem (oh-RAH-zum), the interim chair of economics at Iowa State University, says U-S-produced hot-rolled coil steel is the standard for pricing and it’s approaching 14-hundred dollars per ton.
The U-S Supreme Court ruled earlier this year that some tariffs imposed by President Trump were illegal, but a 50-percent tariff on imported steel and aluminum was allowed to stand. Orazem says prices in the U-S have risen more sharply than in other countries.
In a call to investors in May, a spokesman for Quad Cities-based John Deere, Iowa’s largest manufacturing employer, said the company expected about 900-million dollars in net tariff costs for the fiscal year that ended Sunday.
(John Wanamaker, Iowa Public Radio)
