Joe Donnelly: “I rise today to talk about the severity of the crisis facing our domestic steel industry. Workers are losing their jobs…”

“I rise today to talk about the severity of the crisis facing our domestic steel industry. Workers are losing their jobs, families are losing their homes, and communities are suffering. For several years our domestic industry has been under constant attack. Our steel industry is in the midst of a crisis more severe than the one experienced nearly two decades ago. Global demand for steel has not kept pace with global production. As a result, many of the global producers have come here to the United States to try to dump their steel. As a result of that, domestic producers continue to lose ground, surrendering a record-high 29 percent market share to foreign-made steel last year. The industry currently has about a 65-percent capacity utilization rate, and in Indiana we saw an 8-percent downturn in production last year. As a Senator from Indiana--a State that accounts for one-quarter of all domestic steel capacity--I visit with steelworkers and their families to listen to their concerns about the impact of illegally traded steel flooding our market. Hoosier families are worried. Steel plants are idling, and more than 1,000 Hoosier workers have been laid off as a direct result of the illegally dumped steel that flooded our market last year. These are workers who come up to me at church on Sundays or stop by my office. They look me in the eye and ask me to explain how other nations get to produce and sell steel under a different set of rules.…”