Cliffs chief Joseph A Carrabba takes over as AISI chairman

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Joseph A Carrabba, chairman, president and chief executive officer of Cleveland-based Cliffs Natural Resources Inc., began a one-year term as chairman of the American Iron and Steel Institute on Monday May 21. The AISI projects that the US steel industry will produce 97 million tons this year—up 5% from 92 million tons in 2011 — on the heels of a slow, but steady, economic recovery, Carrabba said at a media briefing during the annual joint meeting in Cambridge, Maryland, of the AISI and the Metals Service Center Institute.

Among the major advocacy issues AISI plans to tackle this year are safety, federal manufacturing policy, the enforcement of international trade laws and government investment in transportation and infrastructure.

Carrabba succeeds John Surma, chairman and chief executive officer of Pittsburgh-based US Steel Corp.