Steel Industry, Seeing a New Dawn, Is Cheering for Trump.
Stocks are up, and employees at a South Carolina plant are confident
in the prospect of infrastructure spending and a tough stand on trade.
HUGER, S.C. — Safely stationed in the control pulpit, Chris St. Amand is watching the pot boil.
Working the day shift at the sprawling Nucor Steel plant along the Cooper River here, Mr. St. Amand monitors a four-foot-wide lasagna noodle of steel as it is dunked into a molten broth of protective shimmering zinc.
He tracks every step of this galvanization process — from the caldron’s 865-degree temperature to the line speed — on a bank of flashing screens. Except, that is, for the screen at the bottom right. “I watch our stock and the Dow Jones on that one,” he said.
Mr. St. Amand, whose pay package includes profit-sharing, likes what he sees. Since Election Day, Nucor is up 13 percent.
Across the steel industry, stock prices — and spirits — have been on the rise, lifted by President Trump’s vow to protect American manufacturers against cheaper imports and invest as much as $1 trillion in infrastructure over the next decade. . .
Mr. Trump’s attention to trade and manufacturing — which helped him gain the White House — means more here than any of the stumbles and missteps that feed late-night television comics. At this Berkeley County mill, neither the administration’s backtracking on a promise to use American-made steel in the Keystone XL Pipeline or its messy battles with congressional Republicans and low approval ratings have damped optimism about the president or his agenda.
“My confidence hasn’t been shaken at all,” said Mr. St. Amand, 37, who moved from Kentucky 16 years ago to take an entry-level job at Nucor as a packager. “Trump is good for business,” he said, repeating a sentiment expressed by 20 other employees interviewed — including a handful who voted for his opponent. (Mr. Trump won 56 percent of the county’s votes, to Hillary Clinton’s 39 percent.)
Jeffrey Goude, 29, nicknamed Strawberry for the curly red beard and hair that peeks out of his green hard hat, agreed. “All of them get criticism,” he said of politicians. “Trump is No. 1 for this industry. He’s trying to make America great again.” . .
In the 1980s, for example, making a finished ton of steel required about 10 human-hours of work. Now the Huger plant can make that same ton from recycled material in 0.4 human-hours, said Mr. Daughtridge, who has worked for Nucor for 33 years.
The jobs that do exist are coveted. Workers stay one, two and three decades with the company while encouraging family and friends to join them.
There is no union at Nucor, not in this anti-union state or any other where the Charlotte-based manufacturer has a plant. But good benefits and pay-for-performance bonuses that have raised the average salary to $80,000 in a good year inspire loyalty. (Nucor did not release specific information about the wage scale.)
In lean times, pay can fall by a third, but the job remains. A no-layoff tradition, even during the Great Recession, means Nucor can keep trained workers who are ready to stoke up when demand picks up.'
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/11/business/economy/steel-nucor-trump-policy.html?src=me