by Emily Bardach, Director of Meetings & Membership
The Desert Attracts Many
There was no doubt in the minds of the AWPA members that when they
left Tucson, AZ this past February, they would be back again. The desert
brought sunny days for meetings and tournaments and cool nights for entertaining
customers and line dancing at the Western Rodeo Round-up.
Over 200 members, potential members, spouses and guests joined us this
year for industry meetings and social gatherings. While spouse attendance
was down from previous years, member attendance was high - a reflection
of the importance of the issues at hand, even in a tight economy. In fact,
overall representation from member companies was at it highest level ever.
Attendees were able to participate in committee meetings with many important
topics to discuss, including monitoring imports from China of wire and
wire products, and the results of this year's Steel Section 201 activities.
New Committee Chairs were appointed. Milton Magnus, President of M&B
Metal Products Company took over the Garment Hanger Committee; Tim Selhorst,
Executive President and COO of American Spring Wire Corporation assumed
the helm of the newly created PC Strand Committee; Joe Downes, President
of Leggett & Platt Wire Group, will lead the Government Relations Advisory
Committee (GRAC); David Libla, President of Mid Continent Nail Corporation,
will serve as the Chair of the Nail Committee; and Chris Whiting, Marketing
Manager of CHC Industries, will take over the Membership Committee.
AWPA also welcomed new Officers. Serving as the new AWPA President is
H Woltz, III, President and CEO of Insteel Industries; with new Vice Presidents
Bob Moffitt, Vice President of Purchasing for Davis Wire Corporation and
Joe Downes. Cheryl Coelho, Vice President, Product Management for ECD,
Inc. takes over as the new Treasurer.
Newly elected Board members are: Milton Magnus, B.L. Moore, Chairman
of Oklahoma Steel & Wire; Michael McCall, Vice President of MMI Products,
Inc.; Curt Livermore, President & CEO of Laidlaw Corporation; John
Johnson, Jr., Vice President of Mid-South Wire Company; David Libla; Tim
Selhorst; Kim Stropes, President of Threaded Rod Company; and Bill Groom,
Director, Rod, Bar and Seamless Sales for Rocky Mountain Steel Mills (Associate
Rod Supplier Representative).
Participants received briefings from a distinguished group of speakers.
Stephen Claeys, Chief of Staff to the Assistant Secretary of Commerce for
Import Administration (Faryar Shirzad) updated the members on many important
topics including the multilateral steel negotiations and the Steel Section
201 investigation. He began by complimenting AWPA and its members on its
proactive work in Washington, DC meeting with Administration officials
and Congressional legislators, and urged us to continue these activities.
Stephen then outlined the Administration's three-point agenda with respect
to the multilateral steel negotiations:
1. Work to remedy trade distorting practices used by our trading partners
to avoid unfair trade policies (i.e., subsidization, unsound bank lending
practices, import barriers)
2. Make improvements in transparency in trade remedy laws. He noted
that US exporters are facing over 60 cases against their products right
now.
3. Adopt a dispute settlement system that is transparent and fair.
With respect to the Section 201 investigation, he stated that the president's
primary goal was to set in motion a system to allow the steel industry
to restructure. It was not to serve as permanent relief from imports.
He concluded by advising the audience that regardless of the outcome
of the Section 201 investigation, the Administration will continue to pursue
multi-lateral talks to address the steel overcapacity problem (see related
story), and negotiations to end market-distorting practices. Claeys urged
wire producers to contact him if they had recommendations to alleviate
the excess capacity problem. The next meeting for the multilateral negotiations
is scheduled for April.
Susan Dyszel, International Trade Officer from The Chicago Strategic
Trade Center, discussed the recent changes made by President Bush to the
Tariff Rate Quota (TRQ) Program covering imports of carbon steel wire rod.
The Center has the responsibility of tracking and reporting the imports
of steel wire rod and line pipe covered by the TRQ programs.
For the third quota year, beginning March 1, 2002, the total quota will
be 1,291,259,302 kg to be split equally among the four quarters of the
program year. These quarterly levels are further broken out into four regions/countries
as follows, with no carryovers from quarter to quarter, or region to region:
European Union - 104,987,486 kg
Trinidad and Tobago - 61,716,789 kg
CIS states - 47,034,377 kg
All other countries - 159,076,170 kg
Susan advised the attendees to go to the Customs website's (www.customs.treas.gov)
Electronic Bulletin Board section for more detailed information on instructions
for labeling and processing these products.
During the second day of presentations, economist Dr. Gary Schilling
gave his views on the state of the economy. Specifically with respect to
steel, the noted economist made some interesting remarks. His conclusion
is that the industry obviously has big problems, but has undergone no real
technological innovations in decades. He added that the answer of constant
protectionism to help them has not worked in the past, and will not work
in the future. "Protectionism keeps inefficient capacity in business,"
Dr. Schilling concluded.
Rounding out the program, and back by popular demand, were rod mill
presentations. This year the featured mills were Lucchini USA Inc and Charter
Steel. Marco Talluri, from Lucchini discussed his company, which is the
leading Italian manufacturer of quality long products, with an output of
5 million tons per year. Mike Beauregard presented the Charter Steel story.
This company is a family-owned and financially sound company that also
includes Charter Specialty Steel. The company recently completed a $186
million expansion project.
The AWPA Sports Day brought everyone out to the course and the courts
for a day of competition and fun. We would like to congratulate the following
individuals for their athleticism and maybe a little bit of luck...
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American Wire Producers Association
801 North Fairfax Street, Suite 211
Alexandria, VA 22314-1757
Tel (703) 299-4434 | Fax (703) 299-9233 | E-mail info@awpa.org | Web: www.awpa.org
