ABSTRACT
During the five-year period of 1972-1976 employment costs accounted for 33 to 40 percent of steelmaking costs in the United States. Employment costs are derived from two parameters: number of man-hours required to produce one ton of shipped product and total employment cost per man-hour. A total of 19.2 million Btu of primary energy was consumed per ton of raw steel in 1970. Over 80 percent of the primary energy was derived from coal. The major energy consumption in the steel mill may be considered to be a "commodity purchase," as far as the operating steel plant is concerned. A hidden cost factor is the yield loss that occurs in processing steel from the raw stage to the finished product. The term yield, as used in American steel plants, indicates the number of tons of finished product shipped to customers divided by the number of tons of raw steel that was required to make subject product, expressed as a percentage.
