The Price Differential between Domestic and Imported Steel,
Abstract
In most years since the late 1950's, the price of imported steel has been below the domestic price. This low import price has been a recurrent worry to steel workers and producers, who fear that imports will force domestic mills out of business. Little help is expected from buyer loyalty to American steel: steel is steel and the buyer need only find the cheapest source. The concerns of the steel producers and workers seem, at first, well founded in economic theory: two products which substitute perfectly in use simply cannot sell at different prices; either the higher price will fall to meet the competition or production of the higher priced one will stop. But the production of domestic steel has not stopped, even though domestic producers have lost some ground to imports. Since the late 1950's, when imports first became low priced, the demand for imports has grown steadily and, sometimes, suddenly, as in 1968. Still, the amazing story is not that imports have grown swiftly, but that they have grown slowly. In 1962, imports had 6 percent of the U.S. market. In 1976, 14 years later, they had 14 percent. So each year, on the average, imports have increased their share of the market by less than one percent. (Author)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Oct 01, 1977
- Accession Number
- ADA075960
Entities
People
- Christopher L. Gamble
- David E. Chase
- James M. Jondrow