July 22, 2010
Decatur Daily (Letter to the Editor)

To The Daily: Your July 11 article, “Battle: Nucor vs. China” reporting Nucor’s concern about the implications of Anshan Iron and Steel Group’s investment in Steel Development Co. is full of inaccuracies. Your readers need to hear the facts.

First and foremost, comments made by Steel Development Co. that this project is only building a 350,000-ton mill leads readers astray from the true facts.

Numerous press reports state that Steel Development Co. is building four rebar mills plus a sheet mill. That is not a small investment.

Secondly, your article fails to mention that the ownership of Anshan is very different from other foreign investments made in the U.S. Anshan Steel is state-owned and controlled by the State Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of China’s State Council.

Companies like Anshan operate at the direction of the highest levels of the Chinese government and benefit from the massive government subsidies and other trade-distorting policies that give them an unfair advantage in international trade.

Finally, your article fails to note that the Chinese government actively promotes its own state-owned steel industry through a variety of industrial policy measures, including by prohibiting foreign companies from obtaining a controlling interest in Chinese steel makers.

We welcome market-driven foreign investment in this country, but investments that are driven by the Chinese government, rather than by commercial considerations, deserve serious scrutiny by the U.S. government.

Thomas J. Gibson Washington, D.C.President and CEO American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI)

Gibson is president and CEO of the American Iron and Steel Institute(AISI), whose member companies make more than 75 percent of the steel produced in the United States.