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Click here to see over 150 oil prices.
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Through a steel miner
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On July 4, the British electorate will go to the polls to vote in the national elections. As in the United States, two parties will largely dominate the election. The United Kingdom has a small Green Party and a center-left Liberal/Democrat Party, both of which do well in local municipal elections but rarely get more than 10% of the national vote. There is also the Reform Party, with a single policy, which focuses solely on immigration.
Recent polls suggest the country will vote for the center-left Labour Party and oust the decade-old, slightly center-right Conservative Party. However, no one outside the country will notice the difference. MetalMiner’s weekly newsletter covers a lot of election and macroeconomic news about its steel procurement on a weekly basis.
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The same can be said for the U. S. presidential election on November 5. Unlike the British election, the U. S. election presents a striking contrast: the maintenance of an aging Joe Biden or the return of an equally aging Donald Trump. candidates from both parties, but that’s the way it is.
At this point, it’s too close to decide, but if Donald Trump backs down, we can probably expect a return of “America first on steroids. “At least the European media largely misunderstood the former president’s goals during his previous term.
When the Trump administration imposed price lists on metal and aluminum in the name of national security, free-market advocates responded with howls of protest, calling the efforts blatant protectionism. However, both American political parties now seem aware of the fact that the West is still embroiled in an economic and industrial war. A key indication of this is a 30-year cumulative industrial imbalance amounting to $20 trillion. If the U. S. and the U. K. continue to lose the industrial war, they face the very genuine risk of wasting a war (if it ever happens).
A country cannot defend itself effectively depending on retail demands or services; you want a production base. As Russia recently learned, the enemy’s first move in a war is to obstruct his ability to import and export commodities: steel, base metals, chemicals, semiconductors, etc. China produces around 50% of the total world production of these products, while the United States, like Europe, is a net importer.
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Are fees alone enough? Asian economies such as Japan, South Korea and, more recently, China, obviously do not think so. These nations provided the state for the advancement of vital national industries. In the United States, the same public viewpoint has not kept pace with imposition. of industrial barriers. Instead, the country has relied heavily on the market to respond to the “opportunity. “The result has been, at best, modest.
There was some minor investment in the steel industry, but nothing spectacular. Meanwhile, aided by state support, Century recently announced its intention to build the first new primary aluminum smelter in 45 years. However, even after the imposition of the tariffs, the US aluminum industry continued to shrink.
Obviously, the challenge lies not only in imports, but also in domestic electricity prices. The Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act was intended in part to address this challenge. In fact, the $500 million paid to Century comes from this package. But many argue that the IRA has tried to solve too many challenges at once, such as improving living conditions and pollutants in disadvantaged areas.
While noble, those goals arguably wouldn’t be as effective in supporting American manufacturing. Obviously, they wouldn’t be as effective as a policy aimed solely at driving down energy prices for brands facing festivals from countries that have brazenly supported such policies for a decade or more. .
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The main objective of the new management deserves to be the national commercial base. If this sounds like protectionism or state aid, so be it. Let’s hope whoever wins rises to the challenge and honestly puts America first.
By Stuart Burns
Further reading in Oilprice. com:
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