FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
October 18, 2000

(Washington, D.C.) -- Specialty Steel Industry of North America (SSINA) Chairman H. L. Kephart today joined members of the Congressional Steel Caucus, the steelworkers union, and steel industry colleagues in a "call for action" by the Clinton Administration to impose restraints on the flood of imported steel that is devastating the domestic steel industry.

Kephart pointed out that the specialty steel industry is facing record levels of imports for all product lines, both in terms of volume and import penetration. The most recent economic data indicate that cumulative imports in 2000 may surpass 1,000,000 tons for the first time in history, exceeding the record 1999 level by nearly 20%.

Said Kephart, "The domestic specialty steel industry is modern and competitive, with a great workforce. We have shown over the decades that we can compete with anybody in the world, given fair trade conditions. But we cannot and should not have to compete with foreign companies that blatantly violate U.S. and international trading rules and are subsidized by their governments.

"In the short term, the specialty steel industry has done everything it can to deal with this problem. We have filed and won antidumping and countervailing duty cases. We are working with the Customs Service, Department of Commerce and U.S. Trade Representative to enforce the orders in effect and prevent circumvention of our laws. But, as the data indicate, more must be done, and urgently."

Kephart also referred to the longer-term problem of new stainless steel capacity that is being built around the world. "We anticipate," said Kephart, "that, within the next five years, new global production capacity of greater than three times the U.S. market will come on stream." According to Kephart, these foreign mills' productive capacities far exceed the capacities of their own markets to consume stainless.

SSINA is a Washington, D.C.-based trade association representing virtually all continental specialty steel producers. Specialty steels are high technology, high-value stainless and other specialty alloy products. While shipments of specialty steel account for only 2% of all steel produced in North America, annual revenues of approximately $8 billion account for over 14% of the total value of all steel shipped.