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Canada's government put nearly a billion dollars into ArcelorMittal's facilities and what they did was they transitioned their outdated blast furnaces into modern direct reduced iron electric arc furnaces to create better steel at lower prices.
These massive government subsidies in Canada gave Canada's national steel champion an unfair competitive advantage over our own steel companies.
I can tell you more about it, including what Mexico did to us under Biden.
I can tell you what South Korea did to us under Biden.
But you need to know the bottom line.
What are tariffs and how do they work and who pays for them?
Do you know that domestic steel capacity utilization has dangerously dropped to 74%, well below the sustainable 80% threshold that we need to make sure that we can make enough steel for our military and national defense in general?
America's aluminum producers have been equally hard hit.
Australia has doubled its primary aluminum exports to the U.S., while foreign competitors, including adversaries like China and Russia, aggressively have used trans-shipment loopholes through Mexico and Canada to evade and circumvent tariffs.
That is why Trump acted this week to impose tariffs on steel and aluminum.
As imports have surged, domestic aluminum production has fallen by 30%.
Listen to this carefully. Smelter utilization rates have dropped to nearly 50%.
In June of 2022, who was President then?
In June of 2022, Century Aluminum idled its Hawesville, Kentucky smelter.
Alcoa announced the permanent closure of its Washington state in Talco smelter.
In March of 2023, while magnitude seven metals in Missouri curtailed operations at its New Madrid smelter in early 2024.