Glenbrook steel mill fears US shut-out

By PAULA OLIVER

The owner of Glenbrook steel mill plans to lobby the United States and New Zealand Governments as they grapple with the prospect of the US invoking tariffs or quotas on steel imports.

Glenbrook, owned by BHP New Zealand Steel, exports roughly 80,000 tonnes - about 13 per cent of its total output - to the United States each year.

Mill management said yesterday that they would have to start looking for alternative markets if the US did move to protect its own struggling industry.

US steel-makers complain that rising imports have pushed their industry into crisis.

Last month, President George W. Bush directed a trade representative to invoke section 201 of the 1974 Trade Act - which in turn required the US International Trade Commission to investigate whether steel imports posed a threat to domestic producers.

The commission has just under 100 days to report.

President Bush's move has the New Zealand industry worried that it could be hit hard by blanket quotas when it is, in fact, one of the smallest exporters to the US.

The increased steel tonnages have come from a wide range of countries, including Korea, Brazil, Turkey, Taiwan, China and Australia.

BHP New Zealand Steel's vice-president of marketing, Mike Gundy, said yesterday that lawyers representing the company would speak with the US and New Zealand Governments over the next month.

Losing the US trade would not necessarily put the Glenbrook mill behind the strict financial targets that BHP had set it over the past two years, he said.

"The Americans might say we can't ship any more product there, or they might say we can ship one-third of what we did.

"We would look for other export markets if they did that to us."

Trade Negotiations Minister Jim Sutton has said it is too early to know how much effect the proposed safeguard action would have on the local industry.

His officials will talk to steel exporters in coming weeks.