7/9/2012 1:03:00 AM
HEADLINES
PERSPECTIVE – Nucor CEO: U.S. Election “Freezes Steel Spending”
“They’re too tied up in not wanting to give anybody an edge in the election, so they’re all frozen in their tracks,” DiMicco told Platts Steel Business Briefing during a recent interview in New York.
“The Dems won’t do anything to help the Republicans look good. The Republicans won’t do anything to help the Democrats look good. We’re screwed until the election. Then, God willing, the right things will get done.”
In February 2012, Bloomberg.com identified DiMicco as one of more than 100 senior executives supporting Starbucks Corp.’s CEO Howard Schultz’ open letter accusing members of Congress of putting “partisan and ideological purity over the well-being of the people.” Schultz blamed the ever-expanding election cycle and “treadmill of fundraising” and called for business leaders to cease campaign donations.
• On steel, DiMicco said China’s steel industry isn’t likely to consolidate or eliminate inefficiency soon. China manufactures a majority of the world’s steel, but much of the production is considered inefficient and competitive only via government support. U.S. trade groups believe much of Chinese steel exported to the U.S. violates international trade laws.
DiMicco told reporters after a speech to the Steel Success Strategies conference in New York, that the Chinese government has little interest in opening up its steel market to the type of international investment that would spur mergers and the shedding of unprofitable facilities.
“If they wanted consolidation to happen, they’d let the world come into their steel market and help make it happen,” DiMicco told reporters.
Such a streamlining in China would require a government mandate, he added.
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