This Morning in Metals: Supreme Court rejects Section 232 challenge

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This morning in metals news, the U.S. Supreme Court has rejected a challenge to the Trump administration’s Section 232 tariffs on steel, British MPs are calling for government assistance for the British steel industry and ArcelorMittal is reportedly considering the sale of some of its Canadian iron ore assets.

Supreme Court rejects challenge to Section 232

President Donald Trump’s decision to impose tariffs on imports of steel and aluminum via Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 shook up the metals world in 2018.
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Since then, politicians have debated the merits of the Section 232 statute and whether or not the power to adjust imports should be with Congress and not the office of the president. In 2019, the Court of International Trade rejected a legal challenge of the constitutionality of the Section 232 statute.
This week, however, the Supreme Court opted not to hear a challenge to the statute’s constitutionality, a decision that was celebrated by the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI).
“We are pleased that the U.S. Supreme Court today rightly affirmed our strong belief, and the previous decisions of the Court of International Trade and Court of Appeals, that the challenge to the Section 232 statute is without merit,” AISI President and CEO Thomas J. Gibson said. “This lawsuit by steel importers was a weak attempt to mask the fact that surging foreign imports have severely impacted the domestic steel industry and threaten our national and economic security. The decision by the Supreme Court today not to hear further arguments in this case is acknowledgement once again that Congress acted within its constitutional authority when it authorized the president to take action to adjust imports that threaten to impair our national security. We have consistently maintained this fact and are pleased that the highest Court agreed.”

MPs call for assistance for U.K. steel sector

Amid the depressive impact on demand that has come as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, British MPs are asking the government to provide loans to struggling British steel firms, the BBC reported.
Labour MP Stephen Kinnock told BBC Politics Wales that support for the British steel sector was needed in a matter of days, as opposed to weeks, according to the report.

ArcelorMittal mulling sale of iron ore assets

Steelmaking giant ArcelorMittal is considering the sale of assets that serve its Mont Wright iron ore mine in Quebec, according to the Financial Times.
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Among the assets that could be up for the sale, according to the Financial Times, is a 420-kilometer railway that transports iron ore to a terminal in Port Cartier.

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