美国国家公共电台 NPR China Churns Out Half The World's Steel, And Other Steelmakers Feel Pinched

 

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

President Trump¹'s push for tariffs² on steel and aluminum³ imports is driven in part by competition from China. The United States still produces most of its own steel, we should be clear. But the industry has faced pressure from cheap Chinese imports. As NPR's Jim Zarroli reports, China's long-term increase in steel production has driven down steel prices all over the world.

JIM ZARROLI, BYLINE⁴: Steel has long occupied a special place in the way countries see themselves. In this industry film from the '50s, steel was portrayed⁵ as a source of national pride, a symbol of a country's industrial might.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM)

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Many, many things are vital to our living and to our standard of living. Only one - but a big one - is steel. We could do without it, but not as well because it does a lot of things for us. Try naming them sometime...

ZARROLI: When President Trump announced tariffs last week, he said manufacturing steel is essential to a nation's defense⁶.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: When it comes to a time when our country can't make aluminum and steel - and somebody's said it before, and I will tell you - you almost don't have much of a country.

ZARROLI: This veneration⁷ of steel happens all over the world, says economist⁸ Linda Lim of the University of Michigan. Lim says every emerging industrial power wants to make steel. The problem is no one wants to buy it. And Lim says this is especially true in China.

LINDA LIM: Way back in the '50s and '60s, it was such a fetish of theirs that they had what were called backyard furnaces. People melted down their silverware in order to produce steel for the national good.

ZARROLI: Lim says China's preoccupation with steel wouldn't be an issue except for the fact that China is so very big. Over the past two decades, China has greatly increased its steel production so that it now dominates the industry, says Eswar Prasad of the Brookings Institution.

ESWAR PRASAD: China now accounts for about half of the world's production of steel. China now produces in one year as much steel as the entire world used to produce back in 2000.

ZARROLI: Prasad says China uses most of the steel it produces itself for bridges and buildings and autos. But it still has a lot left over.

PRASAD: It needs to export about 10-15 percent of its steel. And given how much steel China produces these days, that tends to have a pretty big effect on world steel prices.

ZARROLI: What it's done, he says, is keep prices low, and that has angered other steel-exporting countries. Washington imposes duties on Chinese steel, which is why the U.S. actually imports relatively⁹ little of the product from China today. Still, China's overproduction has hurt U.S. steelmakers. The U.S. share of the global steel market is only 5 percent today. Linda Lim says countries have held talks aimed at scaling back steel manufacturing, but it's been hard to come to an agreement.

LIM: Everybody agrees global excess capacity must be cut. But nobody can agree on who's to be cut.

ZARROLI: Like a lot of economists¹⁰, Lim doesn't think Trump's tariffs are a good idea. They will drive up prices, which will hurt other industries that use steel. She says because steelmaking is so automated¹¹ today, tariffs are unlikely to produce many jobs. And even if they do, it won't necessarily be in the Rust¹² Belt towns where the jobs used to be. But, she says, that's not really the point of the tariffs.

LIM: That's why I think it's not really about jobs, and it may not even be really about politics. It's about something deeper.

ZARROLI: What it is, she says, is an effort to shore up an industry still widely seen as essential to a country's identity and demonstrate that the U.S. remains¹³ an industrial power. Jim Zarroli, NPR News.

(SOUNDBITE OF FOUR TET'S "TWO THOUSAND AND SEVENTEEN")

1 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

2 tariffs   

关税制度； 关税( tariff的名词复数 )； 关税表； （旅馆或饭店等的）收费表； 量刑标准

参考例句：

• British industry was sheltered from foreign competition by protective tariffs. 保护性关税使英国工业免受国际竞争影响。
• The new tariffs have put a stranglehold on trade. 新的关税制对开展贸易极为不利。

3 aluminum   

n.(aluminium)铝

参考例句：

• The aluminum sheets cannot be too much thicker than 0.04 inches.铝板厚度不能超过0.04英寸。
• During the launch phase,it would ride in a protective aluminum shell.在发射阶段，它盛在一只保护的铝壳里。

4 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

5 portrayed   

v.画像( portray的过去式和过去分词 )；描述；描绘；描画

参考例句：

• Throughout the trial, he portrayed himself as the victim. 在审讯过程中，他始终把自己说成是受害者。
• The author portrayed his father as a vicious drunkard. 作者把他父亲描绘成一个可恶的酒鬼。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

6 defense   

n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩

参考例句：

• The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
• The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。

7 veneration   

n.尊敬，崇拜

参考例句：

• I acquired lasting respect for tradition and veneration for the past.我开始对传统和历史产生了持久的敬慕。
• My father venerated General Eisenhower.我父亲十分敬仰艾森豪威尔将军。

8 economist   

n.经济学家，经济专家，节俭的人

参考例句：

• He cast a professional economist's eyes on the problem.他以经济学行家的眼光审视这个问题。
• He's an economist who thinks he knows all the answers.他是个经济学家，自以为什么都懂。

9 relatively   

adv.比较...地，相对地

参考例句：

• The rabbit is a relatively recent introduction in Australia.兔子是相对较新引入澳大利亚的物种。
• The operation was relatively painless.手术相对来说不痛。

10 economists   

n.经济学家，经济专家( economist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The sudden rise in share prices has confounded economists. 股价的突然上涨使经济学家大惑不解。
• Foreign bankers and economists cautiously welcomed the minister's initiative. 外国银行家和经济学家对部长的倡议反应谨慎。 来自《简明英汉词典》

11 automated   

a.自动化的

参考例句：

• The entire manufacturing process has been automated. 整个生产过程已自动化。
• Automated Highway System (AHS) is recently regarded as one subsystem of Intelligent Transport System (ITS). 近年来自动公路系统(Automated Highway System,AHS)，作为智能运输系统的子系统之一越来越受到重视。

12 rust   

n.锈；v.生锈；(脑子)衰退

参考例句：

• She scraped the rust off the kitchen knife.她擦掉了菜刀上的锈。
• The rain will rust the iron roof.雨水会使铁皮屋顶生锈。

13 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。