STEEL TARIFFS Bush's plan pleases Duferco

The company relies heavily on imported steel slabs to make its hot- and cold-rolled products.
By HAROLD GWIN
VINDICATOR SHARON BUREAU
FARRELL, Pa. -- Duferco Farrell Corp. is pleased with President Bush's decision to impose additional tariffs on imports of finished steel products.
The company is also pleased that Bush chose not to impose the same tariffs on imported semifinished steel slabs.
"To survive, we have to import slabs. They simply are not available in the United States on a reliable basis," said Benedict Sciortino, Duferco president.
The company, employing just over 500 people in the former Sharon Steel plant on Broadway Avenue, makes hot-rolled and cold-rolled flat steel products sold primarily to pipe and tube makers, service centers and galvanizing-coating companies.
Imposing a 30 percent tariff on the imported versions of those products "should improve our prices and operating margins," Sciortino said.
About the tariffs: Bush imposed a three-year tariff-rate quota system on imported steel slabs that will allow 5.4 million tons to enter the United States during the first year without any new tariffs.
The exemption for the second year will increase to 5.9 million tons and go to 6.4 million tons in the third year.
Imports above those levels will be hit with a 30 percent tariff in the first year, 24 percent in the second and 18 percent in the third.
Sciortino said Canada, Mexico and certain developing nations are exempt from the quotas and tariffs.
Sciortino said that organized labor and the big mills wanted Bush to do more, seeking tariffs of 40 percent to 50 percent on everything, including slabs.
"I applaud the president for standing up to these interests and doing what he thought was right," Sciortino said.
Bush also imposed tariffs of 15 percent on pipe and tube imports in the first year, 12 percent in the second and 9 percent in the third year.
Same ratios: Bill Perrine, president of Sharon Tube Co., told U.S. Reps. Phil English of Erie, R-21st, and Melissa Hart of Bradford Woods, R-4th, Monday that his industry wanted to see the same tariff ratios imposed on pipe and tube imports as would be imposed on basic steel.
That's what Bush did, Perrine said Wednesday, explaining that a 15 percent tariff on imported pipe is "in the same ballpark" with a 30 percent tariff on flat-rolled steel.
"It's far better than it was yesterday," he said.