‘American steel’The White House has been keen to show that Biden has a grip on the bridge disaster, which threatens supply chains that could have an impact on the economy with the US presidential election some seven months away.The port of Baltimore is a key hub for the auto industry, handling almost 850,000 autos and light trucks last year — more than any other US port — according to Maryland state figures.Biden also nodded to the industrial revival policies that he hopes will win him reelection against Republican Donald Trump in November, saying the rebuilding would happen with “American labor and American steel.”In his bid to woo blue collar voters in the US industrial heartland, Biden has repeatedly backed unions and sought to bring home manufacturing from China.Biden meanwhile paid tribute to the dead workers, who were immigrants from Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras — pitching himself against the rhetoric of Trump who casts migrants as invaders who are ruining the country.The task ahead for Baltimore remains immense.First, salvage workers must remove the bridge by cutting it into smaller sections and lifting them out of the water and off the ship.They also hope this will help rescuers recover all the victims’ bodies.Then they must remove the ship, a behemoth carrying some 4,700 containers.Rebuilding the bridge, which carries a major road around the outskirts of the port city 40 miles (64 kilometers) north of Washington, is expected to take years and cost billions of dollars.
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