Executive Chairman of the Board, Olympic Steel
Search every verified Michael Siegal interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. Michael Siegal, executive chairman of Olympic Steel, has spoken about the impact of global steel overcapacity on the U.S. industry. In a 2016 testimony before U.S. trade officials, he stated that the crisis originated from "interventionist practices and policies of huge steel players like China," which he said had flooded markets with "dumped and subsidized imports." He called on the U.S. Trade Representative and the Commerce Department to strengthen enforcement of anti-dumping and countervailing duty laws. In a 2018 interview, Siegal said that China now produces ten times the amount of steel as the United States, and he described the situation as an "economic war on the industrial base." He also commented on the Cleveland economy, saying it had transitioned from an industrial town to a medical town, but expressed skepticism about the service economy, stating it is "trading the same dollar over and over again and not really generating GDP growth."
“China and the United States produce the same amount of steel in 2001 and now China makes ten times the amount of steel that we do here in the United States and so we're inundated over the years with unfairly traded imports not only in imports in raw steel but of products that are made of steel.”
“I think we have been at an economic war on the industrial base. I think China has unfairly traded many of the aspects that have hurt our ability to take undereducated individuals and allow them to have a productive life in industry.”
“If we don't have trade schools and people who can actually have skills coming out of our high schools and our Community College we can't all just be serviced somebody has to make something somebody has to fix something.”
“I think as we have like any pendulum that has gone too far in one direction the pendulum is starting to swing back but very slowly coming back from where it was.”
Michael Siegal, chairman and CEO at Olympic Steel Inc., shares his thoughts on the Cleveland economy and spells out his keys ...
USTR/DOC Steel Hearing - April 12th, 2016.
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