THE INFRASTRUCTURE BILL JUST GOT MORE EXPENSIVE.

Is Our President paying his developer competitors out by raising their costs?

[Commerce Secretary Wilbur] Ross said he is recommending that President Donald Trump take one of three actions:

• A blanket tariff of 24% on all steels from all countries.

• A 53% tariff on all mill imports steels from 12 countries – Brazil, China, Costa Rica, Egypt, India, Malaysia, South Korea, Russia, South Africa, Thailand, Turkey and Vietnam – and a cap on imports from all other countries. Imports from those other countries would be limited to an amount equal to what they exported to U.S., by product, in 2017.

• A blanket cap on all steel imports from all countries. Imports would be capped at 63% of the volumes each shipped here in 2017.

During a conference call with reporters, Ross would not say whether he has a preference for one of the options and would not speculate which, if any, Trump would impose.

Full Commerce report here.

The rent-seekers pretending to be heirs to Andrew Carnegie are celebrating.

(Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross) has laid out options that have the potential to be meaningful and effective to address the threat the industry faces in light of global excess capacity and relentless steel imports," said Steel Manufacturers Association President Philip K. Bell.

"The president now has options before him that can move our industry forward and help steelmakers operate at rates that will allow U.S. producers to reinvest to maintain and strengthen the industry to ensure U.S. steel production can survive to serve U.S. national defense interests."

And in a statement to American Metal Market, Nucor Corp. chairman and chief executive John Ferriola said he is encouraged by the recommendations.

"We urge the president to move quickly to review these recommendations, [and] we stand ready to assist the administration in evaluating which recommendations will have the greatest impact in stopping the flow of unfairly traded imports," he said in a statement.

The United Steelworkers union said it, too, believes the recommendations could provide meaningful protections to U.S. producers.

The operating engineers have yet to see the fall-off in construction activity as that steel gets more expensive.  Will the steel men be buying the beer in the bar?

And note:  "Ross also pointed out that since 2000, six basic oxygen furnaces and four electric arc furnaces have closed. He said the import problem is really an excess global capacity problem, one that the world has discussed but has not begun to address."  Tariff protections attenuate the incentives domestic steel producers have to produce a quality steel at home at prices overseas producers can't match.