Chicago steel pipe plant to close, sues Mexico over imports | Iowa-Illinois-Wisconsin | telegraphherald.com

The Wheatland Tube steel pipe plant on Chicago’s South Side will close, laying off 230 workers.

Parent company Zekelman, the largest independent steel pipe and tube manufacturer in North America, said that imports are behind its decision to shutter the plant at 4435 S. Western Blvd. in the Brighton Park neighborhood on Chicago’s southwest side. It closed its tube manufacturing facility in Long Beach, Calif., in 2022.

The Chicago-based company, which is headquartered in the Loop, claims unfair trade from Mexico has resulted in the loss of 400 jobs.

The steel pipe and tube company filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia accusing Mexico of dumping steel in the United States, violating trade agreements and threatening national security by weakening the domestic steel industry.

Zekelman also filed petitions with the U.S. Office of Homeland Security and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It’s urging the federal government to enforce trade agreements with Mexico and is asking the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania to rule that Mexico is violating the Pennsylvania Trade Practices Act.

A recent Coalition for a Prosperous America report found that Mexican steel conduit exports to the United States are up 472% over the historic baseline, and that Mexican producers are on pace to ship more than three times as much corrosion-resistant steel to the United States this year. Steel imports from Mexico rose 72% over the historical average in 2022.

“Mexico is violating trade agreements, and the Biden Administration is failing to enforce these rules. The American steel industry is being damaged and American workers are paying a price,” said Barry Zekelman, the company’s executive chairman and CEO.

Zekelman said Mexican steel is often subsidized since the Mexican government is the majority shareholder in some of the county’s largest steelmakers. Members of the Congressional Steel Caucus have been seeking to restore 25% tariffs on Mexico.

Zekelman said much of the steel Mexico is sending to the United States is the result of Mexican imports from China and India, which could include rerouted Chinese and Indian steel whose actual country of origin is being masked to duck tariffs.