The Wall Street Journal - 09.03.2020

A2| Monday, March 9, 2020 THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.

A Style & Fashion article

about new fashion trends that

appeared in Off Duty on Satur-

day transposed the captions

for two photos of elbow-length

gloves. The gloves from The

Row were shown in the top

photo, and the gloves from

Fendi were shown in the photo

underneath it.

Cauliflower is rich in pro-

tein compared with some

other vegetables, but has far

less protein than meat. The

headline on a Business & Fi-

nance article on Thursday

about the growing popularity

of cauliflower incorrectly de-

scribed it as “protein-packed.”

CORRECTIONS

AMPLIFICATIONS

Readers can alert The Wall Street

Journal to any errors in news articles

by emailing [email protected] or

by calling 888-410-2667.

U.S. WATCH

ALABAMA

Legislators Weigh

Lifting Yoga Ban

Alabama lawmakers might lift

a decades-old ban on yoga in

public schools, but the bill would

keep the greeting “namaste” on

the forbidden list.

The bill by Rep. Jeremy Gray,

a Democratic legislator from

Opelika, is on the proposed de-

bate agenda Tuesday in the Ala-

bama House of Representatives.

The measure says local

school systems can decide if

they want to teach yoga, poses

and stretches. However, the

moves and exercises taught to

students must have exclusively

English names, according to the

legislation.

The bill would also prohibit

the use of chanting, mantras and

teaching the greeting “namaste.”

The Alabama Board of Educa-

tion in 1993 voted to prohibit

yoga, hypnosis and meditation in

public-school classrooms.

—Associated Press

U.S. Soccer didn’t address

workplace conditions.

“There is no compromising

on equal pay,” Ms. Levinson

wrote. “Equal is Equal.”

The two sides attempted

mediation in August but ended

the talks without a deal. Last

month, both sides filed mo-

tions with the court to end the

case through summary judg-

ment, with an expert hired by

the women writing that back-

pay damages for the class-ac-

tion suit would be nearly $

million as of the trial date.

“As we have in the past,

U.S. Soccer will continue to be

a tireless advocate for the ex-

pansion of women’s soccer at

home and abroad,” Mr. Cord-

eiro wrote. “This will require a

concerted effort by all parties

to increase investment, com-

petitions and prize money.”

majority of players on the team

who are on contract,” and that

it offered only to match men’s

pay rates that were set in 2011

and currently under renegotia-

tion by the men’s players. She

said the federation made no

commitment to match the

men’s new deal going forward.

U.S. Soccer’s offer “included

the smallest number of games

possible, designed to leave out

all tournaments, including the

She Believes Cup being held

right now,” and included noth-

ing for the World Cup, Ms.

Levinson said. She added that

to meet “on the premise that

our proposal does not include

U.S. Soccer agreeing to make

up the difference in future

prize money awarded by FIFA

for the Men’s and Women’s

World Cups.”

First-place prize money for

winning the 2019 Women’s

World Cup was $4 million. The

prize for winning the 2018

men’s World Cup was $38 mil-

lion.

Molly Levinson, a spokes-

woman for the players, said

U.S. Soccer didn’t offer equal

pay “even for friendlies for the

referees at all levels of soccer.

“Last month, we offered the

WNT Players Association mul-

tiple contract options, which

we strongly believe address

the team’s goals as they have

been presented to us by the

players and their representa-

tives,” Mr. Cordeiro wrote. “In

particular, we have offered to

provide identical compensa-

tion to our women’s and men’s

players for all matches con-

trolled by U.S. Soccer.”

Mr. Cordeiro said in his let-

ter that the WNT Players As-

sociation repeatedly declined

SOUTH DAKOTA

Oglala Sioux to Vote

On Pot Legalization

Members of the Oglala Sioux

Tribe will vote this week on le-

galizing medical and recreational

marijuana on South Dakota’s

Pine Ridge Reservation in an ini-

tiative that many hope will bring

economic development to one of

the most impoverished areas in

the country.

Neither South Dakota nor

nearby Wyoming and Nebraska

have legalized marijuana, and

tribal leaders think pot could

rake in millions of dollars. If the

measure is approved, the Oglala

Sioux Tribe would become the

only Native American tribe to

set up a cannabis market in a

state where it is otherwise

illegal.

Scott James, the Oglala Sioux

Tribe’s attorney general, said

state laws still apply to people

who aren’t members of the tribe,

even if they are on tribal land.

LEADING THE PACK: The first group of male runners sped past the Walt Disney Concert Hall in the L.A. Marathon on Sunday. —Associated Press

MARK RALSTON/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES

The U.S. Soccer Federation

said it has offered the World

Cup-champion women’s na-

tional team equal pay with the

men’s team in matches that it

controls, as a spring trial date

in their legal battle approaches.

But the federation said the

women—who are suing for

equal pay—won’t meet with it

because the proposal doesn’t

include an award of the same

World Cup prize money that

the men’s tournament offers,

according to a letter tweeted

Saturday by the federation’s

president. The federation

doesn’t set prize money for

the World Cups, which are

staged by FIFA.

Carlos Cordeiro, president

of the U.S. Soccer Federation,

posted the letter on the eve of

the first anniversary of the

women’s players filing a pay-

discrimination suit against the

federation.

The women are suing U.S.

Soccer for gender discrimina-

tion. The case is set for a May

5 trial in a federal court in

California.

In his letter, Mr. Cordeiro

wrote that it wouldn’t be “rea-

sonable or fiscally sound” for

the federation to make up the

current $34 million gap in

World Cup prize money. Doing

so, he said, would impair U.S.

Soccer’s mission of supporting

its other national teams, mil-

lions of players, coaches and

BYRACHELBACHMAN

U.S. Soccer, Women’s Team Butt Heads Over Pay

A scene from 2019 Women’s World Cup in France, where the U.S. team beat the Netherlands to win it all.

JEAN-PAUL PELISSIER/REUTERS

Orders for flat-rolled steel

from some mills in China are

down 50% from a year ago,

S&P Global Platts said. Some

Chinese steel mills and alu-

minum smelters have cut

back production this month

in the face of lower demand.

But analysts expect the re-

ductions to be short-lived.

As more workers in China

return to their jobs in the

coming weeks as quarantines

are lifted, plant managers

will be under pressure to

ratchet up production and

sell the output offshore.

U

.S. imports of steel

and aluminum from

China have fallen sig-

nificantly in recent years.

Steel imports from China

sank 22% last year from the

year before to about 544,

tons, according to the Cen-

sus Bureau and the American

Iron and Steel Institute.

Overall, steel imports last

year fell by 17%.

Tariffs have made many

types of metal made in China

uncompetitive in the U.S. But

China’s large steel-and-alu-

minum output drives up sup-

ply and weighs on prices

around the world. Excess

metal in China could create

more competition for U.S.

steel exports or enter the

U.S. indirectly as imports

from Canada and Mexico.

“Our concern is that

China’s metal would flow

into Canada and Mexico and

then be purchased at low

prices,” said Charlie

Straface, a North American

business unit president for

Norway’s Norsk Hydro ASA.

The benchmark London

Metal Exchange price for

aluminum is down 10% from

a year ago at $1,687 per met-

ric ton. Spot-market prices

for hot-rolled sheet steel

vary by market from about

$587 a ton in the U.S. to

$451 per metric ton in Asia.

The U.S. spot-market price

has mostly fallen since top-

ping $900 a ton in July 2018,

three months after the

Trump administration added

tariffs on foreign steel.

Aluminum inventories in

China increased by 62% to

1.4 million metric tons since

the start of February, accord-

ing to market consulting

firm CRU Group. Inventories

of finished steel at mills in

China were 45% higher in

late February than the same

time a year ago, according to

the China Iron & Steel Asso-

ciation trade group.

Analysts expect those in-

ventories to rise as alumi-

num marooned along high-

ways or at smelters as the

U.S. NEWS

T

he world was already

awash in excess steel

and aluminum. The

new coronavirus epidemic is

deepening the pool.

China is the world’s top

producer and consumer of

steel and aluminum. With

factories closed and the

movement of people and

freight restricted to slow the

spread of the new coronavi-

rus, China’s demand for

those metals has plummeted.

But many of the country’s

steel mills and aluminum

smelters have continued to

operate because stopping

and starting equipment han-

dling molten metal is expen-

sive and risky. Millions of

tons of steel and aluminum

produced during what is now

the worst manufacturing

slump on record in China

have created a surplus of

metal that will take months

to shrink, even if the epi-

demic is contained and de-

mand recovers later this

year in China and beyond.

As a result, the global

stockpile of steel and alumi-

num threatens to push down

prices and put new pressure

on producers in the U.S.,

Western Europe and else-

where. Many of those com-

panies were already strug-

gling to earn a profit on

steel and aluminum because

of lower prices and weaken-

ing demand from manufac-

turers.

“We could see China

swamp the entire world with

steel,” said Scott Barrett, di-

rector of domestic trading for

ProTrade Steel Co., an Ohio-

based scrap-steel broker.

epidemic crested is routed

into China’s aluminum distri-

bution warehouses.

“The supply is going to

get bigger, fast,” said Greg

Wittbecker, senior aluminum

analyst for CRU.

With demand inside China

still in the doldrums, steel-

makers have an incentive to

export. Platts said large

shipments of construction-

reinforcing bar from China

recently turned up in Singa-

pore and Hong Kong and

said Chinese sheet steel is

being offered at discounted

prices in Vietnam.

T

he world’s ability to

absorb such shipments

from China is strained

by weakening industrial ac-

tivity and the spread of cor-

onavirus in other countries.

The epidemic has taken hold

in some of China’s biggest

trading partners, including

South Korea and Japan.

Scrap-steel prices have

rallied in the U.S. amid rising

demand from overseas mar-

kets in what steel-industry

analysts are likening to a

calm before the storm. With

steel and scrap still stuck at

Chinese ports and in ware-

houses, countries including

the U.S. have stepped into

the void ahead of the ex-

pected tsunami of metal from

China. Mr. Barrett said he is

advising clients to sell scrap

or steel quickly, rather than

hold out for better prices.

“Liquidate, don’t specu-

late,” he said. “Short-term,

it’s not a bad market, but I

don’t know how long that

lasts.”

THE OUTLOOK|By Bob Tita

China’s Metal Glut Headed to Market

InventoriesofsteelandaluminuminChinaarerising,pushingdownmetalpricesinternationally

andinChina.

Aluminum

inventories in China

China domestic prices

on common steel

Daily cash prices

for aluminum

Sources: CRU Group (aluminum inventory); S&P Global Platts (prices)

¥4,200 per metric ton

3,

3,

3,

3,

4,

2019 2020

Hotrolled

coilsteel

Construction

rebar

1.

0.

0.

1.

1.

1.

million metric tons

2019 2020 2019

1,

1,

1,

1,

1,

2020

$1,900 per metric ton

The week will offer insights

on how the U.S. and global

economies are faring in the face

of the coronavirus outbreak.

Monday

China releases consumer-

and producer-price data for Feb-

ruary. China’s inflation likely re-

mained strong but may have

eased from an eight-year high

in January, as the coronavi-

rus epidemic hurt demand and

supply.

Economists project the con-

sumer-price index climbed 5.1%

in February from a year earlier,

compared with January’s 5.4%

rise. Soft demand likely drove

producer prices back to defla-

tion territory.

The producer-price index ,a

gauge of factory-gate prices,

likely dropped 0.3% in February

on year, following a 0.1% uptick

in January, an economist poll

shows.

Economists expect Beijing to

hold off any aggressive easing

measures for now and focus on

resuming production.

Germany releases industrial

production data for January.

Wednesday

The U.S. Labor Department

releases consumer-price data

for February. Economists esti-

mate that overall prices were

flat while core prices rose mod-

estly.

Friday

The University of Michigan

releases a preliminary report on

consumer sentiment for March.

Sentiment has remained high

but may have declined because

of stock-market turmoil and

worries over the novel coronavi-

rus outbreak.

Germany releases consumer-

price data for February.

ECONOMIC

CALENDAR

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