Mid Continent granted rare tariff exclusions

A Poplar Bluff manufacturer who says it was forced to cut its workforce from 500 to 300 because of tariffs has been granted exclusions by the U.S. government.

Mid Continent Steel & Wire, the largest nail manufacturer in the country, says the U.S. Department of Commerce granted 22 of their 24 requests. Two requests were denied for technical reasons but can be refiled, according to the company, which began announcing layoffs last summer.

“This is a great day for our workers, our customers, for Southeast Missouri, and for U.S. manufacturing,” said Chris Pratt, operations general manager of Mid Continent. “We knew from the start that we qualified for the exclusions. Now, we can focus on making Magnum (Nails), the best nails in the world, here in Poplar Bluff, Missouri.”

Pratt added, “We have been making nails all through the nine and a half months it took for our requests to be granted. We can now methodically ramp up production levels, moving toward the growth path we were on before the tariffs went into effect.”

A 25 percent tariff on steel that started June 1, 2018, on the wire used to make the nails was pricing Mid Continent out of the market, the company said at the time.

The company expected to sell fewer than 4,000 tons of steel nails in July 2018, versus 9,000 tons previously because of the Section 232 tariffs which were extended in June 2018 to cover Canada and Mexico, a major source of raw material for the nail manufacturer.

Eighty percent of the nails sold in the United States are imports from a variety of countries, predominantly China, company officials said last year, explaining, they were able to compete against the imports by sourcing raw material from Mexico.

In its requests, Mid Continent said that U.S. steelmakers could not provide the volume of raw material that the manufacturer required.

The exclusions, which were officially published online on Tuesday, cover close to nine-tenths of the volume of imported steel that Mid Continent uses, the company reports.

In full-page ad to be published Friday in the local Poplar Bluff newspaper, Mid Continent thanks public officials for their support. The company extended its gratitude to President Trump and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross; to Missouri’s two U.S. Senators, Roy Blunt and Josh Hawley; as well as to Missouri Gov. Mike Parson, U.S. Rep. Jason Smith, and State Sen. Doug Libla.

The tariffs had a damaging effect on Mid Continent’s business, according to the company, who said it was in large part because their foreign competitors could make nails abroad and export them to the U.S., free of the Section 232 duties.

Mid Continent says it presented strong evidence that it qualified for exclusions, but added, exemptions from Section 232 tariffs are rarely approved.

“We never gave up hope,” said Pratt, “and neither did our fantastic employees and the great people of Southeast Missouri. Now, let’s make nails.”

Doug and David Libla founded Mid Continent Nail in 1987. The company was purchased in 2012 by Mexico-based Deacero USA.

DAR/Paul Davis