On July 1, 2020, the new era of North American trade began. The new trade agreement, namely the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), which has replaced the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), aims to enhance North American workers, farmers, ranchers, and businesses' rights while maintaining free trade in the region.
The state of North American steel
In 2022, global crude steel production reached roughly 1.89 billion metric tons, of which only six percent were manufactured by the United States, Mexico, and Canada. The United States accounted for the biggest market in that year, with a crude steel production level of 80.54 million metric tons. In comparison, the manufacturing levels in Mexico and Canada were below 20 million metric tons.In recent times, the North American steel industry has encountered numerous challenges, including weak global market demand, disruptions in the supply chain of raw materials, labor shortages, transportation bottlenecks, and escalating prices for primary materials and energy. Together, these problems lower the production levels and worldwide steel trade in the region. Therefore, the production levels of steel products experienced decreases. As of the year 2022, the total production of hot rolled steel products in North America amounted to approximately 113.8 million metric tons. This represented a decrease of four percent in comparison to the previous years, when the figure was nearly 118.7 million metric tons. The annual output of continuously cast steel in the region also recorded one of the lowest figures since 2007, amounting to 107.8 million metric tons in that year. Furthermore, the North American production of hot rolled long steel products was able to maintain a production level that was roughly equivalent to that of the preceding year, with only a slight decrease of 418,000 metric tons as of 2022.
