Austrian steel firm to reconsider US investments

AFP: Austrian steel firm Voestalpine said yesterday it would reconsider its investments in the United States in light of President Donald Trump imposing tariffs on steel and aluminium imports.

“Despite the limited impact of the punitive tariffs on our group, the current actions of the US administration have led us to critically examine whether all our plans for further investments in North America are economically and politically sensible,” Voestalpine chief executive Wolfgang Eder said in a statement.

Voestalpine noted it had invested US$1.4 billion (1.1 billion euros) in the US in recent years, creating 3,000 jobs.  Its 49 sites in the country generated 1.2 billion euros in revenue last year, and the company said that most of its sales in the United States would not be impacted by the tariffs.

The company which recorded 11.3 billion euros in sales in its 2016-2017 financial year estimated that only three percent of its overall revenue will be impacted by the tariffs. 

The products to be most affected by the tariffs are high-tech steel products which Voestalpine said are largely or completely unavailable in the United States from other suppliers. It pointed to steel strip used by automobile manufacturers and seamless tubes that are processed in the United States for use in oil and gas exploration.