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Fastmarkets sat down earlier this month for an exclusive interview with billionaire steel tycoon Barry Zekelman to talk about the role of US tariffs in preserving — and growing — the domestic steel industry. Against the backdrop of globe-spanning tariffs, shifting trade flows and the second Trump administration’s ever-heated reshoring push, the Zekelman Industries CEO has a message for the North American steel sector: steel is essential to national security.
And essential materials need exceptional protection from unfair trade, he says.
“A strong domestic steel industry is vital to America’s independence,” Zekelman said in a press release accompanying the start of his “Steel Here” media campaign. “Choosing imports risks availability, quality, reliability and ultimately the livelihoods of Americans. With ‘Steel Here,’ we are reminding our customers, our communities and our country that buying American steel is not just good business, it’s the right choice.”
In an echo of US Steel’s campaign in the 1960s and 1970s to create a logo for the material — the Steelmark, now owned by the American Iron and Steel Institute, with a special branded edition representing the Pittsburgh Steelers football team — Zekelman shared with senior price reporter Robert England some thoughts on the state of the industry and its future.
The interview below has been edited for clarity and brevity.
Q: What do you hope to accomplish with this campaign?
A: People hear headlines about tariffs, and they hear a lot of jargon as to steel [being] a national security issue. When anyone hears that, even sometimes in my circles, you know, with friends of mine, I get “only 2-3% of the [country’s] steel is used for the military.” And I say: “Guys, national security is not tanks and guns and battleships… security is our ability to conduct our lives and support our communities and really exist.”
When we can’t make something, we’re now held hostage. And I think that became evident during the pandemic. I mean, look how inflationary items were because we couldn’t make them… So imagine if we didn’t have steel, right? I mean, you know we’re not going to be able to build our infrastructure. We’re not going to build our data centers, we’re not going to build our beautiful, clean, green solar farms or wind farms.”
Q: Friends of mine have been surprised we still have a US steel industry. How profound is that?
A: You know, it’s sad. Not only do we have a steel industry — we have a very technologically advanced steel industry that should be much bigger. I mean, we should actually be the stewards of it… Why aren’t we the exporters of steel? We have the lowest energy cost; we have the highest-grade iron ore. We have great technology. Labor is not a big factor in raw steelmaking. I mean, it generates a lot of jobs through making steel and the products we make from steel, but we can be globally competitive if you take all the subsidization off the table, right? And you know, the US should be exporting 50 to 100 million tons of steel a year, not China.
Q: How does domestic steel security relate to energy needs?
A: So, I had a vision of showing people how it affects their lives in certain sectors, and in energy, it’s [involved] from extracting it from the ground, to moving it around, to generating it from the sun or wind towers. So we’re not going to have an energy industry unless you have steel here, right? And I don’t know if people realize this, but 50% of our oil and gas move around this nation in foreign pipe and tube.
Q: In the United States, 50% of the pipe and tubing that ships oil and gas is foreign?
A: Also 50% of the water that you drink goes through foreign pipe.
When we talk about oil and gas as being strategic assets of the United States, and a must-have — why is exploring it, transporting it, refining it, not a strategic asset, too? Steel is part of that.
You’re not going to have an oil and gas industry unless you have steel. You’re not going to frack without steel pipe. You’re not going to drill deep water wells in the Gulf without pipe. You’re not going to move it to a refinery or a gas station or a port or an liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal, or any of those are not going to be built without steel or pipe. And I don’t think we should be doing that with foreign piping.
Q: Are other sectors relying on foreign steel?
A: I mean, this phone here has to get all this information from a data center, and that data center is built with steel, and that data center is powered by energy that is harvested and transported and refined with steel. And the power that gets to those data centers moves through steel wires and steel towers. And you know, it’s all interlinked. People just take it for granted. But can you imagine if people didn’t get their little data fix? And then they found out that the reason that it is really slow or if they aren’t getting it is because we don’t have enough data centers and we don’t have enough power. And they’ll say, “Well, why is that?” Well, you know what happened? Fifteen years ago, our steel industry disappeared.
Download a sample of the Fastmarkets steelmaking short-term forecast