New Administration Aims to Ramp Up U.S. Manufacturing

One of President Joe Biden’s first initiatives in office is to place a greater emphasis on U.S. manufacturing. That means a brighter future for American steel companies could be on the horizon.

Biden recently signed an executive order that advances policies calling for the federal government to buy more domestically manufactured goods and services. The Biden administration believes relying more on American-made products will create more jobs and boost an economy that’s been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The key plank of ensuring the future will be ‘Made In America,’” Biden said, according to USA Today. “That means we’re going to use taxpayers’ money to rebuild America, we’ll buy American products and support American jobs.”

The executive order aims to increase the domestic content threshold, which is the amount of a product that must be made in the U.S. before the federal government can buy it. Currently, loopholes in federal law allow for products to be purchased and defined as “Made in America” if just 51% of the materials used are domestically made.

The administration has not revealed how much it plans on increasing this threshold. But its proposed plan will close the loopholes used by federal agencies to avoid purchasing domestic products.

The order will also help American manufacturing companies and communities compete for federal procurement contracts. The Biden administration is calling for a central review of requests for waivers to Buy American rules. U.S. manufacturers will see those waivers on a public website and determine whether they can provide the requested goods.

U.S.-based construction companies and investors have taken notice of the president’s eagerness to ramp up domestic manufacturing. While the details are still in the works, Biden has mentioned that his infrastructure bill could be as much as $2 trillion, according to Construction Dive.

That would represent an enormous opportunity for the construction and steel companies that are ready to get to work. Some publicly traded companies are even seeing their stock prices rise in anticipation of this manufacturing boom.

The timing of all this news couldn’t be any better, as the construction industry has suffered from a lack of demand caused by the economic slump. That all could change if this infrastructure plan comes to fruition. And the American steel industry could benefit the most.