first steel mill i googled up is https://monvalley.uss.com/uss/portal/monvalley/monvalleywork... which produces 2.9 million net tons of steel (net of what?) with 3000 employees
that's about a thousand tonnes per employee
shitty steel costs about 50¢ a kg, so that's half a million dollars per employee per year, but fine steel can cost 10 dollars a kg, which would be ten million dollars per employee per year
the cost of shipping shit across the pacific varies wildly, but it is often about 3000 dollars per 40-tonne feu, which is about 8¢/kg, comparable to the cost of a steel mill employee making 80000 dollars a year, so it is plausibly false to say that 'a Chinese steelworker makes only about USD 12,000 per year, which more than makes up for any costs involved in shipping the steel across the Pacific to the US'
also as paul houle points out, the collapse of the steel industry in the us happened 50 years ago, at which point prc was not a significant competitor
if there's robust domestic competition driving innovation and better technology usually there are no calls for protectionism; it's your overseas competitors who have to worry about getting undercut by you, not vice versa