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In news that Trump supporters/defenders might care about:

https://www.nola.com/news/business/article_eb4bdb54-e3bf-11e9-a105-1fbf4a4b79a4.html

Quote:Bayou Steel shuts suddenly with loss of 376 jobs in LaPlace; governor blames tariffs




Bayou Steel Group is shutting down its LaPlace steel mill, putting nearly 400 workers out of work as the ripple effects of the growing trade war between the U.S. and China put pressure on the domestic steel industry.



A manager for the 40-year-old plant, which is one of the largest employers in St. John the Baptist Parish, said in a letter to Parish President Natalie Robottom and state workforce officials on Monday that "unforeseen business circumstances" and a lack of financing would force the plant's owners to permanently close the plant by the end of November.


The move came as a shock to local officials, who said the closure came without warning. Parish spokeswoman Baileigh Rebowe said workers had no idea it was coming either.


"Many of them were not prepared," Rebowe said. "They’re devastated and didn’t know this going into work this morning."


The Louisiana Workforce Commission said it had received no warning of the closure and layoffs until Monday. 
The commission said it will deploy a mobile unit to the American Job Center Office on West Airline Highway in LaPlace on Tuesday to offer advice on job openings, retraining and other assistance that may be available to the plant's 376 workers.


Without warning, Bayou Steel -- 'one of the biggest employers we have' -- closing in LaPlace


The LaPlace plant, which first opened in 1979, specializes in turning scrap materials into products like rebar that can then be sold to builders and other customers. In recent months, sharp swings in the market for steel as well as scrap metal and other raw materials, coupled with uncertainty around trade with China, the world's largest steel market, has pressured many steelmakers.


The plant's private equity owners, Connecticut-based Black Diamond Capital Management, did not respond to requests for comment, nor did the plant's management.

Gov. John Bel Edwards blamed the closure on the Trump Administration's trade war with China, which began more than a year ago with tariffs on imported steel.


"While Bayou Steel has not given any specific reason for the closure, we know that this company, which uses recycled scrap metal that is largely imported, is particularly vulnerable to tariffs," Edwards said in a statement, adding that Louisiana is among the states most dependent on metals that have been hit by rising costs caused by tariffs.
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If Trump imposes steel tariffs or quotas, Louisiana would see both winners and losers


Peter Ricchiuti, a business professor at Tulane University's Freeman School of Business, said Bayou Steel should have been better placed than most to survive.


"I am really surprised because it was a 'mini mill' and they are so much more efficient than other mills," Ricchiuti said, explaining that they take in old cars, refrigerators and the like, melt them down and turn the metal into "long products." Also, he said, because the plant was on the Mississippi River, it was able to receive scrap metal from cheap sources, like the Caribbean, in the most cost-effective way.

"I think the tariffs just killed them," he said. "And if they threw in the towel, there have to be a lot of traditional steel mills out there where they're thinking the same thing in the executive boardrooms."


The plant has been through several owners since it was first built. The latest change of hands came only about four years ago when Luxembourg-based Arcelor Mittal, the world's largest steelmaker, sold the plant to Black Diamond.
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At that time, the company employed 630 workers, according to news reports at the time, but it has since been trimming its workforce under chief executive Rob Simon.


In an interview two years ago, Simon said the chopping and changing had left the plant struggling to define its identity. But he added that its location on the Mississippi River gave it a strong advantage in cheaply barging product to depots in Chicago, Pittsburgh and Catoosa, Oklahoma, to be distributed across North America.

Workers at the sprawling facility kept mostly to themselves as they walked to their cars Monday afternoon. Reporters and television news cameras were kept far back from the chain-link fences that surround most of the site.

In the letter to Robottom and state officials, the plants human resources manager, Kristen Barney, said the company expected some of the layoffs would begin Sept. 30 and "will continue until the plant is permanently closed."


She noted that the plant employed some union workers.


The U.S. is the world's fourth-largest steel producer, making around 87 million tons of steel in 2018, according to data from the World Steel Association. China is by far the world's largest steelmaker, producing 928 million tons, or roughly half the world's annual production.


The Trump Administration has accused China of dumping products like steel on world markets at below cost, breaking World Trade Organization rules.


Though the steel tariffs were initially welcomed by many in the U.S. steel sector, the rising cost of steel has hit big users like automakers. That has, in turn, blown back on the steel industry.

In June, U.S. Steel idled a blast furnace at its Great Lakes Works plant after General Motors closed assembly lines at three of its plants.