Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross might benefit financially from Trump’s decision to drop the “Buy American” rule from Keystone Pipeline steel.
The Trump administration’s decision to exempt the Keystone XL pipeline from “Buy American” rules could benefit one company in particular: the steel giant that newly minted Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross invested in and helped run for a decade.
Two days after Ross was confirmed, the White House announced that Commerce will not apply those rules to the project. “The Keystone XL Pipeline is currently in the process of being constructed, so it does not count as a new, retrofitted, repaired or expanded pipeline,” a White House spokesperson told Politico.
The pipeline’s exemption from Buy American rules could benefit Luxembourg-based company ArcelorMittal, the world’s largest steel manufacturer. Ross, a billionaire investor and leveraged buyout specialist, sat on the company’s board until Wednesday, and in January disclosed equity holdings of between $750,000 and $1.5 million.
ArcelorMittal has provided large amounts of material for the Keystone pipeline. According to company documentation, its plant in Bremen, Germany, sold dozens of kilotons of steel to Arkansas-based Welspun Tubular, which used the material to manufacture spiral welded pipe for the project.
The resulting products would not qualify as “American-made” under the definition employed by President Trump’s executive order implementing the rules.
In order for steel or iron used in pipeline manufacturing to be considered American, “all manufacturing processes,… from the initial melting stage through the application of coatings, [must have] occurred in the United States.”
The order took the form of a memorandum sent directly to the Secretary of Commerce, a position that was vacant until Ross was sworn in on Tuesday.
“Steel or iron material or products manufactured in the United States from semi-finished steel or iron of foreign origin are not ‘produced in the United States’ for purposes of this memorandum,” the order specifies.
ArcelorMittal’s formidable lobbying operation focused significant attention on approval of the Keystone pipeline as it languished in bureaucratic limbo during President Barack Obama’s second term.
The company disclosed pressing for approval of legislation to advance the project in spite of Obama’s reticence in federal filings that collectively reported more than $3.5 million in lobbying expenditures from 2013 to 2015.
The Obama administration eventually nixed the project, which, due to its crossing of the US-Canada border, required State Department approval. Days after taking office, President Trump reversed that decision.
That could benefit ArcelorMittal if its Buy American exemption allows it to continue providing materials for the project. It could also be good news for Sec. Ross, who has not said when he will fully divest his holdings in the company.
ArcelorMittal did not respond to questions about its continued role in the construction of the pipeline.
The company told the Daily Beast this week that it expects Trump and his Commerce Department to pursue policies that will serve the company’s financial interests.
In the early 2000s, Ross bought up distressed American steel firms, consolidated them into his International Steel Group, then sold ISG to ArcelorMittal’s predecessor. He served on the company’s board from 2005 until his confirmation this week, taking in six-figure “director’s fees” annually.
It was not immediately clear if Commerce or the White House made the decision to exempt Keystone from Buy American provisions. Neither returned requests for comment.
#1: misterwhite To: Willie Green (#0)
misterwhite posted on 2017-03-03 17:22:38 Reply Private Reply
#2: rlk To: Willie Green (#0)
Do we even have enough American productivity remaining to use American made steel?
rlk posted on 2017-03-03 18:05:41 Reply Private Reply
#3: Willie Green To: rlk (#2)
Willie Green posted on 2017-03-03 20:44:59 Reply Private Reply
#4: rlk To: Willie Green (#3)
rlk posted on 2017-03-04 01:26:00 Reply Private Reply
#5: Gatlin To: Willie Green (#0)
It’s a catchy headline, but Wilbur Ross does not stand to financially benefit since the pipes have long since been purchased for Keystone years ago…. this article is bullshit fake news!
The steel pipes were purchased years ago and the pipes to complete the pipeline are presently stored in Gascoyne, North Dakota. The manufacturing for that steel was booked by companies with corporate headquarters in Russia, India and Italy. Those companies own the steel mills in the United States that made about half of the pipeline for the $8 billion project. About half of the pipe was forged in Arkansas, at a plant owned by India's Welspun. About a quarter came from a Russian-owned plant in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan, and the rest came from Italy and India.
Gatlin posted on 2017-03-04 02:55:42 Reply Private Reply
#6: Gatlin To: rlk. Tooconservative (#4)
Robert, there is definitely something wrong with your computer. You complained a number of times about not seeing the “click here” in my posts while I polled a number of other posters and they saw all of them. Now you say there is a blank rectangle which I see clearly….and others probably also do.
Gatlin posted on 2017-03-04 03:00:22 Reply Private Reply
#7: rlk To: Gatlin (#6)
My computer works fine. I am not chasing after obscure or new formats to decode postings.
rlk posted on 2017-03-04 03:11:14 Reply Private Reply
#8: Gatlin To: Willie Green (#3)
Willy, you should have posted the entire narrative in the article you extracted the video from….or posted a link so everyone can read the entire true story.
Then everyone will learn from the article that:
Gatlin posted on 2017-03-04 03:19:05 Reply Private Reply
#9: Gatlin To: All (#6)
Gatlin posted on 2017-03-04 03:20:04 Reply Private Reply
#10: Gatlin To: rlk (#9)
Gatlin posted on 2017-03-04 03:21:37 Reply Private Reply
#11: rlk To: Gatlin (#5)
The point is, we are losing jobs and profits over here, to buy steel made in foreign countries. Meanwhile, American companies such as Bethleham steel are being put out of business and it is bankrupting entire sections of our country. This is a suicidal abomination.
rlk posted on 2017-03-04 03:24:16 Reply Private Reply
#12: Gatlin To: rlk (#11)
I am in complete agreement with your point ...
Gatlin posted on 2017-03-04 03:55:57 Reply Private Reply
#13: Willie Green To: Gatlin (#5)
Ship it back to 'em and get a refund.
Willie Green posted on 2017-03-04 10:16:12 Reply Private Reply
#14: A K A Stone To: Willie Green (#13)
Ship you back up your dads ass which you were born from.
A K A Stone posted on 2017-03-04 10:18:36 Reply Private Reply
#15: Willie Green To: Gatlin (#8)
What good is that? To make components here... ship 'em offshore to be turned into spiral weld pipe... and then imported back into the United States...
That's too much inefficient shipping going back & forth and back & forth...
If we can't make spiral weld pipe here in the USA, that's goddam Bush's fault and we need to revive that capability for national security... We should be producing ALL our own goddam steel from start to finish... every single pound of it... No excuse for importing any steel at all.
Willie Green posted on 2017-03-04 10:24:45 Reply Private Reply
#16: Justified To: Willie Green (#15)
That would be Obama and demoncraps fault for trying to kill the deal which would send all jobs to other countries.
Nobody has killed more union and nonunion jobs than the demoncrap party. There has been nothing more destructive to America than the demoncrap party! Where the GOP failed is not standing up to the demoncrap party and its henchman the MSM!
Justified posted on 2017-03-04 10:36:41 Reply Private Reply
#17: Willie Green To: Justified (#16)
Baloney... Jorge Dubya Arbusto was worse than Jimmy Carter...
Willie Green posted on 2017-03-04 11:07:24 Reply Private Reply
#18: Justified To: Willie Green (#17)
Carter was purely inept(Communist Christians are that way). Bush had to deal with Clinton's crap like financial bubble Clinton caused(forced business to loan to people even if they could not afford it and allowed companies to cheat the system which showed its ugly head after 911 in 2003 stock market crash) and 911 caused by Clinton's policies. Where Bushed failed is he sold out everything to promote WOT and allowed mass invasion south of the border(which Obama doubled down on).
Justified posted on 2017-03-04 12:07:38 Reply Private Reply