ABSTRACT
The American steel industry looms much larger in public policy discussions than its share of the overall economy might suggest. Steel is a basic building block for a modern industrial economy. It is used in the construction of buildings, roads, and bridges. The principal raw materials for integrated steelmaking are coking coal, limestone, and iron ore. The steel industry has been the subject of substantial Congressional and antitrust scrutiny because of its erstwhile central role in the economy and its concentrated market structure through the 1960s. The US integrated industry's contraction may be attributed to the rise of more efficient competitors, but the speed of the decline in the 1980s and 1990s was surely related to exchange rates. The steel industries of the United States and most developed countries have suffered from the effects of heightened social awareness of the problems of environmental pollution. The future of the American steel industry lies almost entirely with the minimills.
