The southeast Missouri aluminum plant, which was saved in 2018 by former President Donald Trump's aluminum import tariffs after closing in 2016 under President Obama, will close under President Joe Biden. It is scheduled.
This week, executives at Magnitude 7 Metals (Mag7) in New Madrid County, Missouri, announced Aluminum plants are expected to close again and about 500 American workers will be laid off by the end of the month.
“Please pray for us. [Mag7] It was a good job. I just don’t like how it folded,” employee Chavis Goodwin told Heartland News. “…so many people who depended on this work and so many families who are going to be hurt in the shadows.”
Mag7 is just one of the few remaining aluminum factories in the United States, thanks to decades of free trade policies that killed jobs and decimated industry in the nation's heartland.
Senator Josh Hawley (R-Missouri) calling Mr. Biden plans to intervene by invoking the Defense Production Act of 1950 to avert the closure of aluminum plants. Hawley cited the ongoing disruption of the domestic aluminum supply chain.
“This development not only has a devastating impact on working families and high-wage union jobs in my state, it also directly threatens America's national economic security. It accounts for nearly 30 percent of aluminum production,” Hawley wrote to Biden.
Magnitude 7 Metals is one of three major aluminum producers in the United States and operates one of the nation's few active smelters. The annual production capacity is 263,000 tons, which, according to some estimates, accounts for almost 30 percent of the country's total production capacity. As you know, primary aluminum is used in a variety of industrial products, including aircraft, automobiles, solar panels, and various military supplies. The Department of Defense considers aluminum a critical strategic material, primarily for the latter reason. [Emphasis added]
Over the past two decades, primary aluminum production in the United States has declined catastrophically. In 2000, the United States ranked as the world's largest producer of primary aluminum. However, the United States currently accounts for less than 2% of the world's primary aluminum. This sharp decline in production has been caused by several factors, including state-driven overproduction in China, which has caused Chinese aluminum manufacturers to release subsidized aluminum onto the global market, thereby reducing the Prices have fallen, eroding the financial viability of U.S. manufacturers. [Emphasis added]
Given the rapid decline of the primary aluminum industry and the importance of aluminum to U.S. national security, the Trump administration's decision to impose a 10 percent tariff on aluminum products under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 It was given down. In the past 18 months, two other major aluminum smelters in Washington state and Kentucky have shut down. His third occurs due to the reduction of the Magnitude 7 metal smelter. It is clear that more needs to be done to stabilize and revitalize the country's primary aluminum industry. [Emphasis added]
The aluminum plant was shut down in 2016 under the Obama administration because it couldn't compete with cheap Chinese aluminum that was being dumped onto the U.S. market.President Trump then helped reopen it in 2018. plant With his steel and aluminum tariffs.
Under the Biden administration, the plant will close again. Biden in December 2021 announced He had exempted European Union countries from President Trump's aluminum tariffs. He said last month that EU countries would be exempt from tariffs for another two years.
As Hawley pointed out, an aluminum plant in Whatcom County, Washington, also closed Last year, at an aluminum plant in Hancock County, Kentucky, What I saw was Nearly 1,000 American workers were fired from their jobs.
Economic Policy Institute (EPI) cautions Examined The impact of free trade policies on America's working and middle class communities, and more specifically on the domestic aluminum industry.
“From 2010 to 2017, 18 of the country's 23 aluminum smelters ceased production, resulting in the loss of approximately 13,000 good jobs,” EPI researchers detailed. “By 2016, the U.S. aluminum industry was down to three aluminum refineries. By 2017, only one was in operation.”
EPI researchers said President Trump's aluminum import tariffs have increased production, investment and, as a result, increased employment and revived the industry. In many cases, plants like Mag7 have reopened after being shut down.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Please email jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.
