Structural Steel is Produced and Fabricated in America

Since the first skyscrapers in New York and Chicago dared to dance with the clouds, American-made fabricated structural steel has supported American workers, American businesses, and the American economy. 

But now thanks to an influx of foreign fabricated steel from China, Mexico, and Canada, U.S. fabricators have lost nearly $4 billion in sales and counting -- decimating American families. China sent more than four times as much fabricated steel to the U.S. market in 2018 than it did in 2010. Fabricated structural steel imports from China, Mexico, and Canada have almost tripled since 2010, and more than 1 million tons of fabricated structural steel landed on our shores in 2018 alone.

If the United States cannot fend off this onslaught of cheap subsidized foreign fabricated steel, tens of thousands of American jobs will be at risk, billions of dollars in domestic industrial investment will be lost, and we will be handing over the keys to our nation's critical infrastructure to foreign fabricators.

Our leaders in Washington must stand up for the hardworking Americans who rely on the fabricated steel industry to support their families. Help level the playing field and take swift and decisive action to keep those jobs in the United States before it's too late.

U.S. structural steel is made by American workers:

• More than a dozen mills throughout the U.S. produce various structural shapes and plates.
• There are more than 1,000 AISC full-member fabrication shops across the country, the vast majority of which are family businesses.
• The industry produces nearly 3.5 million tons annually, providing 115,000 direct jobs and hundreds of thousands of indirect jobs.
• These workers provide steel for more than 8,000 projects annually across the United States.

U.S. structural steel is a locally sourced and recycled material:

• American structural steel is made of steel scrap collected in the U.S.
• The industry average for recycled content in domestic structural steel is over 90%, the highest of any building framing material.
• Nearly all American structural steel (98%) is captured at the end of its life and recycled into new American steel products.
• A five-story steel-framed office building uses 500 tons of American structural steel; this is equivalent to 360 shredded automobiles, 65 tons of curbside recycling, 79 tons of industrial scrap, and 122 old appliances.
• The greenhouse gas emissions measured as global warming potential of hot-rolled structural steel sections produced in China are three times that of equivalent sections produced in the United States.

U.S. structural steel industry meets domestic demand:

• Structural steel is currently the leading structural framing material for buildings in the United States, with a 46% market share for 2017 for non-residential and multi-story residential construction. The market share for the closest
  competing material—reinforced concrete—is only 34%, indicating a strong market preference for structural steel.
• American steel mills have the capacity to produce more than 9 million tons of structural steel each year.
• Approximately 3.5 million tons of structural steel were used in the U.S. in 2017.
• Existing American structural steel manufacturers can easily meet all domestic demand.