Iron Range jobs, exports bounce back with help of Trump tariffs

[question everything]

Mines and logging companies are hiring, small businesses are expanding and Minnesota’s Iron Range is bouncing back from the mine and production facility closures that hit hard just a few years ago.

A new state budget and economic forecast reflected positive news for the Iron Range, which added jobs in recent years and has seen a strong boost in iron ore exports, used to create steel. State budget officials credited tariffs on imported steel with helping bolster the local economy.

(snip)

For Donald Trump, it could also mean a political boost. Minnesota’s mining country was struggling in 2015 and 2016, when it couldn’t compete with other countries’ illegal dumping of low-priced steel. President Barack Obama responded with tariffs to combat the dumping, and Trump’s administration imposed additional tariffs. Trump's tariffs have had varied impacts in different industries, and the new state forecast report by Minnesota Management and Budget notes that escalating trade rhetoric with China in 2018 hurt soybean farmers and led to the lowest soybean prices in a decade. But for Minnesota’s iron ore industry, the tariffs on imported steel have been a boon.

Iron ore exports were up 42 percent in the third quarter of 2018 compared to the previous year, the forecast states. That bodes well for Trump in 2020, said state Rep. Sandy Layman, R-Cohasset, who said voters on the Iron Range and elsewhere vote their pocketbook.


More..

http://www.startribune.com/iron-range-jobs-exports-up-after-trump-tariffs/506582012/

[Wellstone ruled]

1. Those Soybean exports more than out weigh

those increases in Taconite shipments. Seems to me,the Taconite and Ore shipments were next to nothing.

[MyOwnPeace]

2. Reality is who is filling your wallet..........

Ores may be up, but soy is down. And cars, well, the last one went off the line this week in Lordstown, Ohio. I'm guessing that those people will be voting their pocketbook too, along with Carrier and Harley Davidson.

I would be interested in seeing an honest economic report as to how all of these tariffs and battles are shaking down, but I'm not expecting one from this "administration!"

[MyOwnPeace]

5. A follow-up:

The Institute for Supply Management reported Friday its manufacturing purchasing managers index in February fell to the lowest level since November 2016.

The University of Michigan’s consumer sentiment index hit Trump-era lows in January, and only inched higher in February.

• The National Federation of Independent Business — a very pro-Republican trade group — reported its small-business optimism index in January fell to the lowest level since November 2016.

• The Philadelphia Fed’s manufacturing index fell in February to the lowest level since May 2016, when Trump was putting the finishing touches on securing the Republican nomination.

Again, the voting will take place in more areas than those seeing an increase in ore exports...........

[SWBTATTReg]

3. Sure, helping a few people but overwhelming NOT helping millions of others. NT

[progree]

4. Eliminating healthcare for millions by making it difficult & expensive is genocidal mania

that a few thousand iron/mining/steel jobs cannot compensate for.

OK, not entirely eliminating healthcare for millions -- people can always go to an emergency room where they will stabilize you, give you referrals to doctors you can't afford to see and give you a fist full of prescriptions that you can't afford to fill, and then kick your sorry ass out onto the street. MAGA!