Beam to carry steel protest

Press, 10 March 1984, Page 11

Beam to carry steel protest

NZPA-Reuter Houston United States steelworkers are sending a giant steel beam carrying a petition to Washington as part of their campaign for restrictions on imports. The 12-metre beam left a closed Houston steel plant owned by Armco on Thursday on a lorry that will take it 5630 km through 27 cities to gather signatures before reaching Washington in the late (northern) spring. Former Armco employees signed a piece of oil pipe mounted on the beam, one of the last made at the works which shut in January. Armco has blamed the closure on increased imports as well as a recession and the slump in the energy industry, the market for 85 per cent of the plant’s production. Executives of other steelmakers complained at a news conference about the imports, with the Lone Star steel president, James Chenault, saying more than half the steel pipe sold to American oilfields was produced abroad. His company was operating at 20 to 40 per cent capacity with 1500 workers laid off. The United States Steel Corporation vice-president, Jimmy Hill, said imports in January exceeded two million tonnes.