Steel tariffs threaten 100 local jobs: ATI

Allegheny Technologies is warning U.S. Commerce Department officials that 100 high-paying local jobs will be eliminated and the viability of a vital Defense Department supplier jeopardized unless the Pittsburgh specialty metals producer gets relief from tariffs on imported steel.

The company is seeking an exclusion from the 25 percent tariffs that President Donald Trump imposed on steel imports March 23. The penalties are based on a 1962 law that allows the White House to impose tariffs if imports threaten national security.

Allegheny Technologies does not want the tariffs to apply to about 300,000 metric tons of stainless steel slabs it plans to import annually from Indonesia. The shipments are part of a joint venture formed this year with China’s Tsingshan Group, the world’s largest stainless steel producer.

The slabs will be processed at a rolling mill that Allegheny Technologies recently reopened in Midland, Beaver County.

The 100 employees at the mill will make about $125,000 annually in wages and benefits, the company told Commerce Department officials in a filing made public Wednesday.

The company said 72 workers have already been hired and another 30 will be hired by the end of the year, if the tariffs do not apply to the Indonesian imports.

Allegheny Technologies is one of dozens of companies seeking the exclusion from the 25 percent tariffs on steel and 10 percent penalties on aluminum imports that Mr. Trump ordered. Many of the petitioners claim that they cannot buy the quantity or quality of metal they need from domestic producers. Some of them say U.S. producers no longer make the steel or aluminum they need.

The Commerce Department will take up to 90 days to consider whether to exempt imports from the tariffs.

Allegheny Technologies said U.S. stainless producers can’t provide all the steel it needs.

Moreover, if suppliers could meet the company’s needs, they “have no reason to supply stainless steel slabs to ATI at a cost that will allow it to compete in the market for the downstream product,” the company said in the filing.

In addition to the 100 jobs at Midland, the joint venture with Tsingshan supports another 200 jobs at suppliers, Allegheny Technologies said.

Getting tariff relief “is critical to the financial viability” of the company, Allegheny Technologies told Commerce Department officials. That is important because of the $300 million in revenue the company generates annually by supplying key metals and parts to the defense market, the company said.