Top U.S. Stainless Steel Maker Roiled by Supply Chain Woes
- North American Stainless declares force majeure, letter shows
- A lack of trucking facilities to supply gas part of the reason
Steel pipes sit stacked at the Port of Houston in Texas.
Photographer: Loren Elliott/BloombergIn another sign of how supply chains are being snarled all over the world, a leading U.S. maker of stainless steel was forced to declare force majeure at its Kentucky mill because it can’t get enough of the industrial gases it needs. And one of the reasons for that is a shortage of trucking, a problem seen across a number of industries.
North American Stainless Inc., which produces the metal that goes into everything from kitchenware to guitars and airplanes, won’t be able to sustain its normal melting operations at the plant in Ghent, the company said in a letter to customers seen by Bloomberg. NAS, a subsidiary of Spain’s Acerinox SA, accounts for about 40% of total stainless steel supplies in the U.S.