New York (CNN) American steel companies are planning to reopen several mills this year, adding jobs across the country, thanks in part to President Donald Trump's tariffs.

That includes Fairfield, Alabama, where US Steel said it will resume construction on a furnace that had been halted in 2015, when China started flooding the steel market.

"It's great news for us here. People can take a breath for the first time in nearly five years," said Kevin Key, president of the local United Steel Workers union.

But the project will add only about 150 jobs -- not nearly enough to make up for the more than 1,000 lost when US Steel shut down some of its other local operations in 2015. Many storefronts in the area are still boarded up, and even Walmart left town, Key said.

The story is the same elsewhere in the United States. Trump's year-old trade war has succeeded in revitalizing an industry that experienced years of decline as China ramped up production. But that hasn't translated into a boon for workers.

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