In the heart of Trump country, Mid Continent Nails gets hammered by 45's steel and aluminum tariffs -- now seeking "product-based exemptions" to save themselves.
From the Southeast Missourian: (Updated below)
Mid Continent Nails of Poplar Bluff, Missouri has begun laying off its workforce after seeing its monthly orders drop from an average of 9,000 tons to 5,500 tons in June and only 4,000 tons in July. Mid Continent is a subsidiary of Mexico-based Deacero, which purchased the company in 2012.
In other words, in Make-America-Great-Again Poplar Bluff, MO, an American company sold out to a Mexican company, which is now the second-largest employer in the city. And the maker of half — count ‘em — of the steel and aluminum nails manufactured in the U.S.
Mid Continent now pays a 25 percent tariff on steel (and 10 percent on aluminum) imported from — where else — Mexico. Trump began imposing the tariffs in June after exempting Mexico from his first round in March.
As a result, the company raised its prices 19 percent and watched its orders plunge.
Mid Continent has now closed one of its three plants, which has enough inventory to fill existing orders. Layoffs began with 60 part-time or recent employees.
Next would be their second plant, with 200 employees. They expect it to close by the end of July, and if nothing changes, to be OOB by Labor Day.
The company is considering importing their raw materials from the only steel- and aluminum-making countries not on 45’s enemies’ list — Argentina, Brazil, Australia and South Korea. The problem is that the metals rust during long-distance shipping, so may not be usable.
They’ve also filed requests with the Commerce Department for product-based exemptions from the tariffs. But if this NYT article is any indication, Mid Continent is only the latest in a loooong line of companies to have done so.
And the response from Commerce — run by Secretary Wilbur Ross (who has a history of rescuing floundering steel companies) — sounds eerily similar to the response from DHS regarding how immigrant parents will be reunited with their separated kids. They just haven’t figured it out yet, that’s all.
(A Cabinet secretary woud never invest in floundering domestic steel companies while knowing that tariffs would soon be raised on imported steel.)
When seeking Sen. Claire McCaskill’s (D-MO) help out of this mess, Mid Continent’s Vice-President of Sales George Skarich had this to say:
“Wasn’t the goal of these tariffs to Make America Great Again by bringing back good paying manufacturing jobs?”
I guess George really thought 45 has a clue about how business works.
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