Word: steels
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...with a child's Erector Set, the crane operator maneuvers a ladle filled with 230 tons of molten iron toward a giant furnace and pours into its maw a glowing glob of 3000 degrees F metal. After 45 minutes in the oxygen-fired furnace, the iron turns into liquid steel, which a computer-controlled casting machine quickly forms into slabs 40 ft. long. Presto! In just 3.8 worker-hours, one-third less than the U.S. industry's average, this modern plant has produced a ton of steel. It is one of the most efficient mills in the world, but this...
After years of clanking toward the scrap heap, Big Steel is staging an impressive comeback. Last week USX said the operating profits at its steel division reached $501 million in 1988, in contrast to $125 million the previous year. The industry piled up total profits estimated at $2 billion in 1988, and is expected to match that performance this year. But the revival has ignited a bitter lobbying battle between Big Steel and its customers. The $ mills claim they need import restraints to keep the good times rolling. But major buyers, notably the manufacturers of automobiles and heavy machinery, argue...
...long ago, the U.S. steel industry was floundering in its worst recession since the 1930s. One reason: since the mid-1970s, global demand for steel has stagnated at about 475 million tons a year, but mills have been producing an average 700 million tons annually. The huge oversupply sent prices and profits into a tailspin. In the U.S. the years of reckoning were 1982 through 1986, when losses amounted to $12 billion...
...avoid annihilation, Big Steel had to slash its costs. "Our labor alone put us out of the ball game," says USX Chairman David Roderick. In 1980 the U.S. industry's workers made $17.46 an hour, vs. $9.63 for their Japanese counterparts. Big Steel embarked on a wholesale payroll-cutting campaign in which 60% of the industry's 428,000 workers lost their jobs. Those who remained gave generous pay concessions. Last year U.S. steelworkers earned $22.63 an hour -- equal to $15.48 in 1980 dollars -- vs. $18.52 in Japan...
...make more steel per worker, the industry carried out a long-overdue modernization drive. As recently as 1974, one-quarter of all steel in the U.S. was still being produced by old-fashioned open-hearth furnaces, which take eight hours to turn molten iron into steel, compared with 45 minutes for the more efficient oxygen-fired furnaces. Since 1982, American steel companies have poured $9 billion into upgrading their mills. Open hearths now produce only 5% of domestic steel...