The Steel Industry in the USA Steel has been part of the greatest achievements in history. It was
the “iron horse” and steel rails that helped carve a nation out of the
frontier. Steel is the backbone of bridges, the skeleton of
skyscrapers and the framework of automobiles. Now in the 21st
century, it is still revolutionizing the way we live. It is high
strength frames for eyeglasses; it is a strong durable frame in
housing and it’s precise surgical instruments used in hospital
operating rooms around the world.
Iron has been a vital material in technology for well over 3,000
years. But until the Industrial Revolution, its mining, smelting, and
working were largely done by individuals and small groups. Known
since ancient times, steel is made by alloying iron with carbon to
produce a harder stronger metal.
Steel was very expensive to manufacture by the primitive methods
available and was used largely for specialty items such as swords and
precision instruments. “Steel making (in the 18th century) was a
laborious and time-consuming process.” (1) Manufacturing of steel
improved during the 19th century with Henry Bessemer’s invention of
using a blast furnace method for making steel.
During the 20th century, a basic oxygen-furnace process and the
electric arc furnace produced steel. The electric arc method is the
least costly method of making steel. This uses scrap metal as its
base. Steel scrap from many sources such as old bridges,
ref...
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...AICS 3311, 3312)
www.steel.org
3. The Brown and White – Steel giants rusting away
Bw.Lehigh.edu/print.asp?ID=17414
4. U. Sl Geological Survey, Mineral Commodity Summaries, Jan. 2001
Prepared by Michael D. Fenton, mfenton@usgs.gov
5. NYU School of Law, Jean Monnet Center
www.jeanmonnetprogram.org/papers/01/013101-02.html
6. United States Antidumping Act of 1916
www.ebearing.com/legislation/1916act,htm
7. The United States continue Dumping and Subsidy Offset Act
of 2000 (Byrd Amendment)
www.ebearing.com/legislation/2999act.htm
8. U. S. Customs Today – December 2002 – Implementing the
Steel 201 Remedy
www.cbp.gov/xp/CustomsToday/2002/December/ost.xml
9. U. S. Antidumping Law Hurts Americans
www.cato.org/cgi-bin/scripts/printtech.cgi/dailys/08-24-01.html
Steel Corporations Forge Tyranny The 1960s marked a time of great change, turmoil, and innovation in American history. President John F. Kennedy worked hard to ensure the best for the citizens of the United States and that is why, when steel corporations raised their prices 3.5 percent in a time of economic distress, Kennedy responded with outrage. In his speech to the American people on April 11, 1962, President John F. Kennedy used a plethora of rhetorical strategies to persuade the American public to join his crusade against the greed of large steel companies. President Kennedy begins his address by immediately stating his opinion on the issue; that the actions of steel corporations “constitute a wholly unjustifiable and irresponsible defiance of public interest.”
During the 1800’s, America was going through a time of invention and discovery known as the Industrial Revolution. America was in its first century of being an independent nation and was beginning to make the transition from a “home producing” nation to a technological one. The biggest contribution to this major technological advancement was the establishment of the Transcontinental Railroad because it provided a faster way to transport goods, which ultimately boosted the economy and catapulted America to the Super Power it is today.
of U.S. workers employed in manufacturing has dropped from 16.5% in 1987 to 10.8% today.
In a time where sacrifices were asked of the American people by John F. Kennedy, greedy steel tycoons decided to raise the prices of their goods for personal gain. In response to this, Kennedy composed a passage in which he uses a condescending tone, antithesis, and personification to attempt to convince the steel companies to lower their prices.
America’s large abundance of natural and human resources is what enabled the nation to develop so greatly in such a short amount of time. During the nations metamorphosis into the worlds industrial leader, the gross national product became eight times greater than after the civil war. New inventions also played a vital role in the country's industrial revolution. The technologies helped improve productivity, transportation, and communication. With the transcontinental railroad, refrigerated railroad cars, and the new air-brake system, larger amounts of various products could be shipped internationally at a much faster rate. A telegraph line was laid across the Atlantic Ocean, allowing the states to speak instantly with people in Europe. Railroads emerged rapidly and so did the scandals. Cruel, manipulative people dominated the country with their big businesses. Corporations came about, along with stock to raise money for them. The more money the corporation could raise through stock the closer they were to achieve economies of scale. Big businesses would sometimes come close to becoming monopolies that controlled the whole market. They were a rare...
Throughout the late nineteenth and the early twentieth century, the United States economy changed dramatically as the country transformed from a rural agricultural nation to an urban industrial gian, becoming the leading manufacturing country in the world. The vast expansion of the railroads in the late 1800s’ changed the early American economy by tying the country together into one national market. The railroads provided tremendous economic growth because it provided a massive market for transporting goods such as steel, lumber, and oil. Although the first railroads were extremely successful, the attempt to finance new railroads originally failed. Perhaps the greatest physical feat late 19th century America was the creation of the transcontinental railroad. The Central Pacific Company, starting in San Francisco, and the new competitor, Union Pacific, starting in Omaha. The two companies slaved away crossing mountains, digging tunnels, and laying track the entire way. Both railroads met at Promontory, Utah on May 10, 1869, and drove one last golden spike into the completed railway. Of course the expansion of railroads wasn’t the only change being made. Another change in the economy was immigration.
In the Wall Street Journal article titled, “Industry Cuts Back As Steel Prices Fall,” writer Robert Guy Matthews discusses recent changes in the price of steel in the U.S. He also discusses past and potential future influences on U.S. steel prices. These influences include the domestic supply and demand of steel as well as foreign supply and demand in the global market. Supply and demand have been mainly shaped by the recession at large.
Hoerr, J. P. (1988). And the wolf finally came : the decline of the American steel industry. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press.
The Industrial Revolution in North America The industrial revolution started around 1750. It began in Britain and spread throughout the world. England was known as “the world’s workshop” because at that point in time, England was the major manufacturing center of the world. Bailey:
For over half a century the Pittsburgh region was the largest concentration of steel making in the world. Its collapse was spectacular. The mill towns strung along the Monongahela Valley have now suffered forty years of decline. Much of their shabby infrastructure and buildings (at best homely even in their prime) has decayed, most of their population has fled to the metropolitan suburbs or left the region, and those that remain, for the most part poor, struggle or live off memories. Regeneration is a continuing problem for public policy makers as the mill towns struggle on life-support systems — public welfare for individual households; funding from federal, state and local agencies for public services, projects and a plethora of `initiatives´. Re-born they are not.
The boom of mining iron ore, coal, and limestone and producing iron in north Alabama during the 1800s had a tremendous impact on Alabama’s economy of the time. It provided opportunity for the expansion of the railroad and work. Cities were born around this industrial boom. All of these things encouraged economic growth in Alabama during this time.
Copper mining has had a huge impact on Michigan throughout history. Copper mining has had such an impact that the Upper Peninsula of Michigan has a region referred to as “The Copper Country” because of its involvement in the copper-mining industry. The copper-mining industry has also led to technological developments necessary for hoisting and drilling as well as the development of towns and cities in the Keweenaw. In addition, it led to the creation of many potential jobs for residents of the towns that were developed to support these mines.
In the years following the Civil War, the American economy was suffering from extreme disorder. However, during the late 1800s and early 1900s, important leaders of American industry arose, essentially transforming the American financial system from chaos to efficiency. These powerful men shaped America into a world superpower and the country’s economy sparked jealousy across the globe. Their contributions to business positively affected not only the United States’ economy, but society as well. Andrew Carnegie, John Davison Rockefeller, and John Pierpont Morgan reflect on the mammoth industrial age of America.
As recently as six years ago, while investors were still in thrall to a dotcom bubble that had yet to burst, steel was derided as one of the last bastions of the "old" economy. Many firms in the industry were state-owned or heavily protected by governments keen to preserve assets deemed vital to national interests. Globalization had left the steel business behind. It is a measure of the changes that have swept the business since the internet bubble popped that last week Arcelor, a company created through a 2001 merger of the top French, Spanish and Luxembourg steelmakers, made a hostile bid of C$4.
The industrial revolution began in Europe in the 18th century. The revolution prompted significant changes, such as technological improvements in global trade, which led to a sustained increase in development between the 18th and 19th century. These improvements included mastering the art of harnessing energy from abundant carbon-based natural resources such as coal. The revolution was economically motivated and gave rise to innovations in the manufacturing industry that permanently transformed human life. It altered perceptions of productivity and understandings of mass production which allowed specialization and provided industries with economies of scale. The iron industry in particular became a major source of economic growth for the United States during this period, providing much needed employment, which allowed an abundant population of white people as well as minorities to contribute and benefit from the flourishing economy. Steel production boomed in the U.S. in the mid 1900s. The U.S. became a global economic giant due to the size of its steel industry, taking advantage of earlier innovations such as the steam engine and the locomotive railroad. The U.S. was responsible for 65 percent of steel production worldwide by the end of the 2nd World War (Reutter 1). In Sparrows Point: Making Steel: the Rise and Ruin of American Industrial Might, Mark Reutter reports that “Four out of every five manufacturing items contained steel and 40 percent of all wage earners owed their livelihood directly or indirectly to the industry.” This steel industry was the central employer during this era.