American Steel

The story of Nucor's billion dollar gamble to build a steel mill in Crawfordsville, Indiana.

By the end of the 1980s, the once mighty U.S. steel industry seemed on its last legs. More than a quarter of a million jobs had been lost, and communities like Pittsburgh and Bethlehem were devastated. Yet today, the industry again stands as a world-class competitor. In The Renaissance of American Steel, Roger Ahlbrandt, Richard Fruehan, and Frank Giarratani illuminate the forces behind this remarkable comeback, drawing valuable lessons for managers not only in the steel business but in any business now battling the global marketplace. Citing evidence from a wide range of companies in the U.S., the U.K., and Japan, and clearly explaining the basics of steel production, the authors show how the industry's rebirth resulted both from the downsizing of big companies and the rise of minimills capturing markets from the larger companies. They describe how large, traditional firms--including U.S. Steel, British Steel, and Nippon Steel--recognized that they had to reduce the scope of their operations and reorganize to become more competitive. U.S. Steel CEO Tom Graham, for instance, closed plants and refocused the firm's resources on the market for flat-rolled products. The book also examines how minimills--such as Nucor, Birmingham Steel, Oregon Steel, Tokyo Steel, and Co-Steel Sheerness--have redefined the industry's structure and competitive dynamics. Nucor, in particular, has emerged as the leader among the minimills--the largest electric furnace-based steel company in the U.S., with annual sales exceeding $3 billion. The reader learns how CEO Ken Iverson, recognizing the opportunities to be seized if Nucor moved beyond traditional products (such as steel joists and rebar), created the most innovative steel mill in the world, with a consistent record of investing in new technologies to lower operating costs and to move into sophisticated, value-added products. Throughout the book, the authors offer sharp insights into the steel industry in the U.S. and abroad--but more important, they highlight the lessons to be learned for managers in all industries. The authors conclude, for instance, that success for both large and small steel producers depends on a critical interplay of factors that touch on leadership, new technologies, and decentralized management. Effective leaders, the authors find, don't micromanage; they set a goal for the company and communicate it broadly to gain employees' commitment. High-performing companies aggressively seek technical know-how, even if it means purchasing it from foreign competitors or securing joint agreements. And finally, successful companies decentralize, empowering employees far down in the organization to handle daily decisionmaking. This in-depth analysis of a radically changed industry speaks volumes about the value of flexibility in business. It is an essential resource for any manager working in today's global economy.

What is the cause of the American steel industry's deplorable situation today? Troubled in many areas—competition from imports, technology implementation, cost and utilization of raw materials, investment policy, philosophy of management, and union attitudes, to name only a few—can the industry survive? These are the questions Dr. Kiers confronts in this book. Unless answers can be found, he warns, the result will be further decline and, finally, bankruptcy or nationalization. Unwilling to accept either possibility, Dr. Kiers challenges the steel industry to achieve a rebirth he sees as feasible only through a hard-nosed, realistic approach, an insistence on innovation, and a willingness to apply discipline to every facet of steel making. Dr. Kiers presents an in-depth analysis of Japan's steel industry, compares it with the U.S. industry, and discusses U.S. technology and import problems with reference to Japan. He then inventories the factors responsible for the current problems and lays the groundwork for a new start, going on to point out that the difficulties faced by the steel industry may be a portent of what will happen to other industries unless they, too, reassess both labor and management attitudes and make radical changes.

The steel industry provides much of the material basis for modern civilisation. Although its end products are numerous, the largest sector of the industry is involved in the production of wide strip. This is used by countless other industries to make a range of products from automobile bodies, and the cases of domestic appliances, to metal furniture and cans for the preservation of foodstuffs and drinks. A hundred years ago sheet steel was made in labor-intensive operations by a large number of small rolling mills. This is an account of how this relatively backward part of the industry was transformed by the invention and industrial application of a revolutionary new technology. In the hot strip mill a slab of steel was passed through a series of rolls to be reduced into a continuous band of wide strip, which was then shipped either as coils or cut into sheets. The introduction of the wide continuous hot strip mill began to concentrate the sheet and tin plate industry into much bigger operations complete with iron making, steel works, rolling mills and finishing plant. New companies rose to prominence; some old industry leaders fell behind. Many former locations for sheet manufacture were abandoned, but other old plants and companies re-equipped and survived. Major producers of other products entered the new trade. Less than thirty years ago another major change began when electric arc steel furnace operators began to install strip mills and the trade of the now rather inappropriately named `mini-mill` grew rapidly at the expense of the longer established iron—open hearth steel—primary rolling mill—strip mill industry. Now, as its centenary approaches, the strip mill sector is still undergoing major changes. This book surveys the growth, structure and changes in this dominant part of the steel industry. The strip mill has transformed steel world-wide, but in its origins and development it has above all been a distinctively American achievement.

This book provides a basic outline of the history of the American steel industry, a sector of the economy that has been an important part of the industrial system. The book starts with the 1830's, when the American iron and steel industry resembled the traditional iron producing sector that had existed in the old world for centuries, and it ends in 2001. The product of this industry, steel, is an alloy of iron and carbon that has become the most used metal in the world. The very size of the steel industry and its position in the modern economy give it an unusual relevance to the economic, social, and political system.

period of international leadership was challenged, this book interprets steel from the viewpoints of historical and economic geography. It considers both physical factors, such as resources, and human factors such as market, organization, and governmental policy. In major discussions of the east coast, Pittsburgh, the Ohio Valley, the Great Lakes, the South and the West, Warren analyzes the location and relocation of steel plants over 120 years. He explains the influence on location of a variety of factors: The accessibility of resources, the cost of transportation, the existence of specialized markets, and the availability of entrepreneurial skills, capital, and labor. He also evaluates the role of management in the development of the industry, through an analysis of individual companies, including Bethlehem, Carnegie, United States Steel, Kaiser, Inland, Jones and Laughlin, and Youngstown Sheet and Tube. Warren examines the influence exerted on the industry by complex technological changes and weighs their significance against market forces and the supply of natural resources. In the production process alone, the industry changed from pig iron to steel; from charcoal to anthracite; to bituminous coking coal; and from the widespread use of low-grade ore from the eastern United States, to the high quality but localized deposits of the Upper Great Lakes, to imported ores. Unlike other industrialized nations, the United States has undergone major geographical shifts in steel consumption since the 1850s. As the American population moved south and west into new territory, steel followed. Warren concludes that these radical alterations in the distribution and demand were the decisive force in the location of steel production.

This book provides a basic outline of the history of the American steel industry, a sector of the economy that has been an important part of the industrial system. The book starts with the 1830's, when the American iron and steel industry resembled the traditional iron producing sector that had existed in the old world for centuries, and it ends in 2001. The product of this industry, steel, is an alloy of iron and carbon that has become the most used metal in the world. The very size of the steel industry and its position in the modern economy give it an unusual relevance to the economic, social, and political system.