The prospective deal for the acquisition of US Steel by Nippon Steel reminds me of a great song about an earlier episode in US Steel’s history.
Some Chicago Boyz know each other from student days at the University of Chicago. Others are Chicago boys in spirit. The blog name is also intended as a good-humored gesture of admiration for distinguished Chicago School economists and fellow travelers.
The prospective deal for the acquisition of US Steel by Nippon Steel reminds me of a great song about an earlier episode in US Steel’s history.
And the Wolf Finally Came
the Decline of the American Steel Industry
https://acl.bibliocommons.com/v2/record/S209C1280238
And while the wolf was devouring much of the traditional steel industry, an upstart called Nucor was pioneering with mini-mill based on the electric arc furnace and with the introduction of continuous cassting to the US.
There’s a good book on Nucor, written by someone who was ’embedded’ with the company for some of its formative years: American Steel, by Richar Preston
I’ve always been ambivalent on Nippon steel’s acquisition.
Why has the American steel industry declined so much? Is it just cheaper steal from overseas?
It was big news in the San Francisco Bay Area a few years ago and this big new addition to the Baybridge with Chinese steel is developing cracks
Of course nobody in the state was ever held responsible for this decision
I think this globalization over the last 50 years has been great for developing countries with cheap labor and terrible for the West
Unless having cheap consumer goods is the only possible good outcome
“mini-mill based on the electric arc furnace”
Nice technology as long as you have access to cheap electricity.
Why has the American steel industry declined so much? Is it just cheaper steal from overseas?
I read And The Wolf Finally Came when I was working at a steel mill in 1990s. I still recall something from the conclusion- the American steel industry began as a cottage industry and then because of union rules it ended as a cottage industry.
By the time I got there, a lot of the nonsense had gone away. But it didn’t matter so much, because so many foreign competitors enjoyed so many subsidies. I recall reading that the Italian government had gifted their industry an entire integrated mill, and then noticing that certain expensive equipment at our rolling mill was Italian. Hmmm..
Effectively, American companies were competing with foreign nation-states. This was not a recipe for success.
Plus, in the late 90s, many companies that would eventually be liquidated operated for extended periods in bankruptcy, thus dragging down other companies in the same manner that one fallen mountain climber roped to others can drag them all off the mountain to their collective doom. Also not a recipe for success.
I recall reading of companies like Nucor and Steel Dynamics as threats to the old industry but they were to small to do the damage that was done.
I blame the US government’s complete and utter indifference to the fate of American industry as the root cause.