Mrvan visits Carmeuse, touts tariffs and investments

Carmeuse, a major supplier to the steel mills along the lakefront, is investing $1 million in its Buffington Harbor plant.

United States Rep. Frank J. Mrvan, D-Highland, toured the plant Wednesday, touting how steel tariffs have protected jobs and encouraged investment there. Gary Mayor Eddie Melton, American Iron and Steel Institute President and CEO Kevin Dempsey and union leaders visited the facility on the Lake Michigan lakeshore that provides lime and limestone, key ingredients in steelmaking, to local steel mills.

"We are truly the backbone of manufacturing," Carmeuse Vice President of Sales and Marketing Phil Piggot said. "Since more protective measures have come into place, we've been able to hire more people. There's been a direct impact across this business and this country. We've been able to hire more people and increase our capital investment as manufacturing has increased in the steel industry. That rolls right back to us."

Carmeuse is a significant employer along Northwest Indiana's industrialized lakefront, Mrvan said.

"What I'm most thankful for is the 90 employees they employ right here in the Region. That's vitally important," he said. "Today is about, most importantly, protecting those families."

The blanket tariffs of 50% on most imported steel have bolstered the steel industry and companies like Carmeuse, Mrvan said.

"The Section 232 tariffs we fight for in Congress and as a Congressional Steel Caucus member allow the steel industry to thrive and be protected against bad actors who want to dump subsidized steel into our markets, which then slows down the markets," Mrvan said. "My job is to protect the industry so it can thrive. This is the forgotten lifeblood of what is going on in the steel industry. The lime that goes in with iron ore to make steel must be protected also. We must understand that you're a symbiotic part of the industry and that those jobs are so vitally important."

Mrvan talked to Carmeuse employees, many of whom are the second or third generation in their families to work in the steel industry.

The Congressional Steel Caucus, which consists of members of Congress who hail from parts of the country with steel mills, mines or suppliers, is working to preserve the tariffs. Mrvan said he, for instance, has fought hard to ensure the International Trade Commission has enough funding to enforce existing tariffs, many of which were levied via trade cases outside of the Section 232 tariffs enacted in response to dumping, subsidies and other activities that violate international trade law.

"When I'm at the table at appropriations and I'm able to talk about Carmeuse and the 93 families you employ here and the 2,500 employees you have across North America, that has power," he said. "It allows me to tell the narrative in a truthful way of the impact these policies have on the American worker."

Carmeuse is a major employer of contractors, said Randy Palmateer, business manager of the Northwestern Indiana Building and Construction Trades Council.

"We thank Frank for all the work he does on behalf of the working families of Northwest Indiana, but on behalf of the 30,000 men and women I represent, we thank Carmeuse for putting them to work and using the manpower I represent," he said.

Site Operations Manager Kevin Stevenson said the plant currently employs a few construction workers as it makes $1 million in upgrades.

"We joke that at times it seems like we have contractors who show up to work some days and we don't necessarily have anything for them," he said. "But we find something for them to do. Since I came in March, we've really be trying to put good projects together to drive the plant, to push it forward, to make it safer, to make it more environmentally friendly, to make sure we're sourcing the lime into the steel mills as locally as possible, to supply them. To do that we had to take a good look at the plant and the condition that it's in and the operations."

Carmeuse is investing $72 million in plant upgrades nationally. It serves a number of different industries.

"The 90 teammates that are here are at the epicenter and heart of the steel industry," Piggot said. "The barometer of the health of the entire steel industry in the United States, you can tell the health of it from the impacts on this facility. We literally can tell how the steel industry is doing with how we're doing. It's so interconnected from Alabama to Ohio to Indiana to out west. This is still the epicenter of steel production in this country. There are new steel mills being built elsewhere and they're very important, but this is still the backbone of steel in this country."