Behold mighty shovels as they claw bloodstone into lumbering haul trucks. Watch the iron ore train trundle south, mounds of dark gray pellets steaming from each stout car. See bubbling vats of molten metal feed Rust Belt smoke stacks that reach for red skies like dragon fingers.
These images of industrial America — steel! — occupy our national imagination. They hearken back to times of growth and plenty, and fuel economic nostalgia we can’t seem to quit. There’s just one problem.
It’s all falling apart.
Decades of neglect in American steelmaking infrastructure tipped U.S. Steel, once the biggest corporation in the world, into decline. And as most of the world adopted more efficient electric arc furnace technology, U.S. Steel remained wedded to massive, energy-intensive blast furnaces.
After the production blitz of World War II and the postwar buildup, U.S. Steel lost ground to foreign and domestic competition. In “The Godfather Part II,” a 1960s mobster jokes that the mafia had grown “bigger than U.S. Steel.” These days, Dollar General ($18.7 billion) and Texas Roadhouse ($11.7 billion) hold higher market capitalizations than U.S. Steel ($8.5 billion).
Today, the fate of U.S. Steel — which employs more than 1,800 Minnesotans — seems less certain than ever. Until last week, it appeared President Joe Biden would soon block the company’s proposed merger with Nippon Steel of Japan. Now a decision has been pushed until after the Nov. 5 election. Nevertheless, the deal still faces widespread opposition from the United Steelworkers of America and politicians of both parties, including presidential candidates Kamala Harris and Donald Trump.
