The US steel and aluminum industries are roaring back to life, buoyed by strong demand from China and Europe.
US manufacturing firms shipped an average of 1.7 million tons of steel in the second quarter of the year, the Commerce Department reported on Thursday.
The steel industry had been in decline for years, but the growth is particularly dramatic as the government’s mandate to modernize the country’s steel supply and technology is gradually loosening.
“We are back,” said Michael Kagan, chief economist for U.S. Steel in New York.
“Our steel and metals industries have been resilient, but we have to be very careful that we don’t let our competitiveness wither or fade.”
Steel production surged more than 4% to 5.6 million tons in the third quarter, the first increase since mid-2011, according to a Reuters tally.
The increase comes amid signs that the US economy is finally recovering from the 2008 financial crisis, but it comes with an asterisk: the steel industry’s share of the overall economy fell in the same quarter.
U.N. officials said they were concerned that the U.K. would follow the lead of France and Germany in rolling out the carbon tax and introducing the national carbon tax in 2019, with little sign of a U.J.D.A. boost.
“It’s an issue of confidence, the confidence of the steelmakers,” said Andrew Tulloch, a professor of international economics at the London School of Economics.
“I would expect it to take a few years before we see the full effects.”
The rise in steel output also reflects rising demand for the metals used in electronic components, including the parts that make up electronic watches, laptops and other electronic devices.
The growth in exports of the metals has also helped lift the U,S.
economy, the biggest contributor to the global economy.
The U.A.,B,F and S-corporations are leading the world in exports.
UBS estimates that the steel and aluminium industries are responsible for around 1% of global output.
UAW President Dennis Williams said the industry is “definitely the fastest growing of the major industries in the U!
S., with growth accelerating in 2016.”
That’s despite the fact that the American steel industry has been in steep decline for decades.
The trade union said the US has lost about $1.5 trillion since World War II and expects that figure to rise to $2.6 trillion in 2027.
The industry also faces a growing number of competitors that are now taking advantage of the changing global economic climate to boost production and drive down prices.
“What is happening is we have more competition, we have less choice, we don.t know which industries will continue to grow,” said Brian Pitzer, an analyst at the investment bank RBC Capital Markets.
“The key drivers of the resurgence are clearly technology and the shift to a service-oriented economy.”