Steel tariffs hurt nail manufacturer
POPLAR BLUFF: The mood is tense at a nail factory in rural Missouri, where workers fear that steel tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump’s administration could cost them their jobs.
As giant spools of steel feed the manufacturing process, the men and women operating the whirring, screeching machines of the Mid-Continent Nail Corp wonder if Trump himself will come to their rescue.
It has been a successful business, employing some 500 people in the rural community of Poplar Bluff.
The nail company is publicly raising the alarm, saying the tariffs on steel imports may put it out of business.
They have had to raise prices to pay for more expensive steel and cannot compete with cheaper imported nails — completed products that face no tariffs at all.
“It’s a misguided policy,” said Chris Pratt, Mid Continent’s chief financial officer and operations chief.
“I just think it’s a policy that wasn’t thought out completely. And we got to fix it.”
Many of the workers here voted for Trump. They liked his promise of a resurgence in American manufacturing.
“I just want to have America on a level playing field, you know. And he seemed like he was interested in doing that,” said machine shop supervisor Sean Hughey.
Orders have plunged 70 per cent and they have shut down one of their three plants at a sprawling complex in Poplar Bluff.
Sixty workers are laid off and hundreds more may soon lose their jobs.
If nothing changes within a few more months, the company might close altogether.