EuroWire November 2014

Transatlantic cable

Commerce had already set preliminary anti-subsidy duties of 81.36 per cent for Hebei Iron & Steel and 10.30 per cent for Benxi Steel and all other producers and exporters in China, which continue in force. Commerce was to make a nal decision on the anti-dumping duties by the end of the year. The complaint about imports of hot-rolled carbon steel and alloy steel rod from China, which totalled $313 million in 2013, was made by ArcelorMittal USA, Charter Steel, EVRAZ Pueblo, Gerdau Ameristeel, Keystone Consolidated Industries, and Nucor Corporation. † One of the complainants above – Colorado-based EVRAZ Pueblo, a unit of EVRAZ North America (Chicago) – manufactures rails and pipe as well as wire. Company o cials expressed satisfaction with the 22 nd August decision by the US International Trade Commission to impose tari s on steel pipe imported from six countries, saying it will have a positive impact on the Pueblo plant. Parent company EVRAZ North America is itself a unit of the Russian steel and mining company EVRAZ plc. The countries found to have sold material below cost in the American market, at the expense of domestic producers such as US Steel (Pittsburgh) and TMK-IPSCO (the Houston-based unit of Russia’s OAO-IPSCO), are South Korea, India, Taiwan, Turkey, Ukraine and Vietnam. While grati ed by an action that, he said, ‘will ensure a more competitive and fairer…market for American manufacturing and American workers’, US Steel CEO Mario Longhi pledged continued evaluation of options ‘including further litigation’ against Saudi Arabia, Thailand and the Philippines – the three exporting countries examined but not penalised by the ITC. † Possibly auguring an unsettled climate in the USA steel plate market through the end of the year, an attempted late-summer round of price increases by several major plate producers was met with resistance from some service centre and downstream customers. Buyers had largely accepted the round of price increases announced in June. American Metal Market construed the proposed increases as raising the price of steel plate to $44 per hundredweight ($880 per ton) from $43 per cwt ($860 per ton). AMM sources noted that the later hike – and questions about its necessity and timing – may have disrupted order entry (“Buyers Bristle,” 29 th August) A tip from the German solar energy industry to its American counterpart: avoid jolting customers with frequent rate hikes The non-pro t Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), established in 1974, is considered the voice of the USA solar energy industry. Recently SEIA released a study, prepared for it by economic consultants with the Brattle Group (Cambridge, Massachusetts), which examines Germany’s solar support programmes. The ndings are instructive. Currently, Germany has 35GW [gigawatts] of installed solar capacity – representing about seven percent of the nation’s Energy

of exporting call centre jobs to India, the Philippines, Mexico and other countries, American companies are now bringing those jobs home. American rms seeking to reduce labour costs began sending call centre jobs overseas years ago. The reverse trend, industry watchers told the Free Press , is being driven by rising labour costs overseas, changes in technology, and by customers unhappy with the service from the call centres. (“Call Centre Jobs Coming Home from Overseas,” 3 rd August) Chairman Matt Zemon of the non-pro t group Jobs4America (Chapel Hill, North Carolina) said that about 180,000 call centre jobs were created across the USA in 2012 and 2013. This year, according to a Michigan Economic Development Corp estimate, at least 1,400 call centre jobs have been created in Mr Witsil’s home state. One company, S&P Data, said it plans to add 420 employees at its call centre in Troy. Dialog Direct, which employs about 800 people at its Detroit-area headquarters in Highland Park, announced it is planning to add 500 more – 300 there and 200 in its Grand Rapids o ces. Keontay Kelley, a Dialog Direct employee in Highland Park, said that in his experience callers appreciate that the centre is in the USA. And Doug Kearney, Dialog Direct’s president and CEO, said that he expects more growth in the industry over the next few years as customers in greater numbers turn to social media – presumably for peer-group guidance. An estimated ve million Americans are currently employed in call centres. Paul Stockford, the director of research for the National Association of Call Centers (Hattiesburg, Mississippi), a non-pro t membership group, also expects the number of call centres in the USA – currently about 66,000 – to grow. Companies are still using overseas centres to handle sales calls involving low-price, low-margin items and also to address customers seeking technical help. But, Mr Stockford said: “The higher the value of the customer, the more likely the job will be in the USA.” † It is a fact of commerce that, if a customer is confused or dissatis ed, it could cost the company a sale. For a purveyor of big-ticket items – say, plane tickets worth hundreds, even thousands, of dollars – this could mean a major loss. Mr Witsil, the Michigan business writer, observed that United Airlines has a reservations call centre in Dearborn. † Not every planned repatriation of call centre jobs produces a success story. In late 2011, as AT&T was seeking to buy T-Mobile, the communications giant announced it planned to bring back 5,000 call centre jobs that had been sent overseas. It was the largest such e ort by an American company since 2008. But the bid for T-Mobile was abandoned. Said AT&T: “The [call centre] initiative didn’t happen.”

Steel

† The US Department of Commerce on 2 nd September set preliminary duties of up to 110 per cent on imports of carbon and alloy steel wire rod from China after ruling that the products were being sold below cost in the American market. Standard duties of 110.25 per cent were set, but some Chinese companies faced a slightly lower rate of 106.19 per cent.

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November 2014