Metals Service Center Institute Responds to State of the Union Address
02/14/2013 - While the Metals Service Center Institute supports the majority of the policies to expand U.S. manufacturing outlined by President Obama, it also recognizes several proposals outlined by the president could have profoundly negative consequences for metals producers, distributors and processors.
President Barack Obama last night gave his fifth State of the Union address to Americans. In his remarks, the president outlined a platform to expand U.S. manufacturing. While the Metals Service Center Institute, a more than 100-year old organization representing more than 400 firms in the industrial metals industry, supports the majority of these policies, it also recognizes several proposals outlined by the president could have profoundly negative consequences for metals producers, distributors and processors.
“I was pleased that President Obama made the concept of restoring U.S. manufacturing the cornerstone of his remarks,” said MSCI president and CEO Bob Weidner. “Our industry is gaining strength—jobs are coming back and manufacturers are bringing operations back home to the United States. Several of the initiatives proposed last night by the president would increase hiring and promote reshoring.”
Specifically, President Obama proposed creating more manufacturing innovation centers, investing in research and development and new training programs, and ensuring a robust domestic energy supply.
These positive proposals were balanced with calls to further increase taxes on hardworking small business owners and manufacturers and a plan to bypass Congress and allow the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate greenhouse gases (the president said he would also seek other executive actions to combat global climate change).
“Last night the president said it is lawmakers’ duty to restore the very American ‘idea that if you work hard and meet your responsibilities, you can get ahead,’” noted Weidner. “He is right. But lawmakers cannot restore that dream while taxing and regulating job creators more. More than half of MSCI members are small businesses that pay taxes at the individual income tax rate. Through hard work they have achieved the American Dream, and are trying to help others achieve it too. Making it more costly for them to do business, to hire more workers, and to provide good benefits will not help us fulfill the generational obligation the president so eloquently spoke of; it will drive us further away from that goal.”
Founded in 1909, the Metals Service Center Institute, based in Rolling Meadows, Ill., has over 400 members operating from more than 1,500 locations in the United States, Canada, and Mexico and throughout the world. Together MSCI members constitute the largest single group of metals purchasers in North America, amounting each year to more than 55 million tons of steel, aluminum, and other metals, with about 300,000 manufacturers and fabricators as customers. MSCI’s membership also includes almost all ferrous and non-ferrous industrial metals producers in North America. Service centers inventory, process and distribute metals to manufacturing intermediaries and original equipment manufacturers.
