US adjusts Buy America requirements

The US government is tweaking its definitions for Department of Defense Buy America requirements, Kallanish learns from a note in the Federal Register. 

The definitions at issue are “domestic end product” and “domestic construction material.”

Domestic end products will now be excluded unless the “end product is manufactured in the United States, and the cost of iron and steel not produced in the United States, or a qualifying country, constitutes less than 5% of the cost of all the materials used in the end product.”

Domestic construction material will also now carry the “less than 5%” qualifier. 

The Department of Defense is already operating under a 50% domestic material requirement unless “the offered price of material of domestic origin is unreasonable or inconsistent with public interest.”

The changes were made at a historic time for US steel pricing. Hot-rolled coil is within spitting distance of $2,000/short ton – or a dollar per pound – and rebar is close to cresting $1,000/st.

Dan Hilliard USA