History of the iron and steel industry in the United States
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Graph of US iron and steel production, 1900–2014, data from USGS
The US iron and steel industry has paralleled the industry in other countries in technological developments. In the 1800s, the US switched from charcoal to coal in ore smelting, adopted the Bessemer process, and saw the rise of very large integrated steel mills. In the 20th century, the US industry successively adopted the open hearth furnace, then the basic oxygen steelmaking process. Since the American industry peaked in the 1940s and 1950s, the US industry has shifted to small mini-mills and specialty mills, using iron and steel scrap as feedstock, rather than iron ore.
Iron manufacture before the 19th century required charcoal, and Britain's once-vast forests could no longer supply enough charcoal for the nation's increasing need for iron. By 1700, Britain was becoming increasingly dependent on iron imported from its sometimes-adversary Sweden. Britain looked to the seemingly limitless forests of its American colonies to supply Britain with iron. British investors started an iron furnace near Perryville, Maryland, which in 1718 started exporting iron back to Britain. That success prompted formation of more companies, which built numerous iron furnaces around Chesapeake Bay, supplied by bog iron ore, which was widespread. By 1751, Virginia and Maryland were exporting 2,950 tons of pig iron to Britain each year; at the time, British iron production was about 20,000 tons per year.[1]
While the Chesapeake Bay furnaces were established for export, iron furnaces were established in the 1700s throughout the American colonies for domestic consumption. Iron furnaces were located along rivers to supply water power. Also required were forests for charcoal, iron ore, and limestone for flux. In addition, the furnace needed to be close to a major market or close to water transport.
British business interests were split on colonial iron: manufacturers appreciated the lower prices due to colonial imports, but the British iron and steel industry objected to the competition. Parliament compromised in the Iron Act of 1750, which eliminated the import duty on colonial pig iron, but barred the manufacture of steel or of iron plate in the colonies. The law was widely ignored by colonial governments.
By 1776, up to 80 iron furnaces throughout the American colonies were producing about as much iron as Britain itself. If one estimate of 30,000 tons of iron each year is accurate, then the newly formed United States was the world's third-largest iron producer, after Sweden and Russia.
Because wood for charcoal was available throughout the eastern states, iron smelters were located close to iron ore. Although the bog iron ores mined in colonial days were widespread, the deposits were also small, and quickly exhausted. In the late 1700s the iron furnaces moved away from the bog iron ore of the coastal swamps, to larger iron ore deposits further inland. Inland locations also allowed the furnaces to be closer to sources of limestone, which was used as a flux in iron smelting. The proximity to larger ore deposits favored larger, more permanent iron smelters.[2]
Most US iron smelting before 1850 took place near iron deposits in eastern Pennsylvania, New York, and northern New Jersey.[3] New Jersey's principal iron ore district, at Dover, supported iron smelters beginning in 1710. The Cornwall Iron Furnace in Pennsylvania was established next to an iron deposit. The Adirondack iron ore district of New York also supported iron smelters.[4]
The movement away from charcoal in US iron smelting began in 1827, when a puddling furnace in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania started using anthracite coal. Blast furnaces continued to use only charcoal until about 1840, when coke from coal started replacing charcoal as the fuel and reducing agent.[5] Coke has a higher crushing strength than charcoal, allowing larger smelting furnaces.[6] Because iron and steel-making at the time consumed more coal than iron ore, the steel mills moved closer to the coal mines to minimize transportation costs. A problem of coke was that it carried impurities such as sulfur, which degraded the quality of the steel. Although coke quickly became the dominant fuel for iron-smelting, in 1884 charcoal was still used to make ten percent of iron and steel in the US. The use of charcoal for steelmaking survived in the US on a small scale until 1945.
The Lackawanna Valley in Pennsylvania was rich in anthracitecoal and iron deposits. Brothers George W. Scranton and Seldon T. Scranton moved to the valley in 1840 and settled in the five-house town of Slocum's Hollow (now Scranton) to establish an iron forge.[7][8] The most common processes for creating blister steel and crucible steel were slow and extremely expensive. The Scrantons instead used the new "hot blast method," developed in Scotland in 1828.[7] The hot blast method solved the problem of impurities from the coke, by burning them off. The Scrantons also experimented with anthracite to make steel, rather than charcoal or bituminous coal.[9]
The replacement of charcoal with coal in the steel-making process revolutionized the industry, and tied steelmaking to coal-mining areas. In the 1800s, making a ton of steel required a greater weight of coal than iron ore. Therefore, it was more economical to locate closer to the coal mines. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, surrounded by large coal deposits and at the junction of three navigable rivers, was an ideal location for steelmaking.
Notable early 19th-century iron furnaces in the US
In 1856, Englishman Henry Bessemer invented the Bessemer process, which allowed for mass production of steel from molten pig iron, reducing the cost of making steel by more than 50%. The first American steel mill to use the process was constructed in 1865 in Troy, New York. In 1875, the largest-yet steel mill, Edgar Thomson Steel Works in the Pittsburgh area, was built to use the Bessemer process, financed by industrialist Andrew Carnegie.
Cleveland's first blast furnace was built in 1859. In 1860, the steel mill employed 374 workers. By 1880, Cleveland was a major steel producer, with ten steel mills and 3,000 steelworkers.[10]
The Lackawanna Steel Company built a large integrated steel works near Buffalo, which began producing steel from Lake Superior ore in 1903. The company had made steel in Scranton, Pennsylvania since 1840, but moved to provide easier access to iron ore, and in an unsuccessful attempt to avoid labor troubles.
Birmingham, Alabama became a major steel producer in the late 1800s, using locally mined coal and iron ore. The iron ore was mined from the Red Mountain Formation of Silurian age.
Notable defunct late 19th-century iron and steel furnaces in the US
Percentages of US steelmaking processes.Steel production by countries. United States steel production faced a steep decline in the 1970s.
As the only major steel maker not harmed during World War II, the United States iron and steel industry reached its maximum world importance during and just after World War II. In 1945, the US produced 67% of the world's pig iron, and 72% of the steel. By comparison, 2014 percentages were 2.4% of the pig iron, and 5.3% of the steel production.
Although US iron and steel output continued to grow overall through the 1950s and 1960s, the world steel industry grew much faster, and the US share of world production shrank. In the 1960s, the US became a major importer of steel, mostly from Japan.
Contraction: 1979–1984
US production of iron and steel peaked in 1973, when the US industry produced a combined total of 229 million metric tons of iron and steel. But US iron and steel production dropped drastically during the recession of the late 1970s and early 1980s. From a combined iron and steel production of 203 million tons in 1979, US output fell almost in half, to 107 million tons in 1982. Some steel companies declared bankruptcy, and many permanently closed steelmaking plants. By 1989, US combined iron and steel production recovered to 142 million tons, a much lower level than in the 1960s and 1970s.
The causes of the sudden decline are disputed. Among the many causes alleged have been: dumping of foreign imports below cost, high labor costs, poor management, unfavorable tax policies, and costs of environmental controls. One recent study found that hypotheses based on declining domestic production (such as foreign imports displacing domestic product) cannot explain the magnitude of the decline in employment, as shipments of domestic steel products in 2005 were similar to the level of the early 1960s, whereas employment in the domestic sector had plummeted by approximately 75% over the same time period. Instead, the majority of the losses could be accounted for by rising productivity, principally through technological efficiencies and the shift from traditional steel plants to mini mills.[11]
Cleveland had nine integrated steel mills in the 1970s. US Steel closed one mill in 1979, then shut down its six remaining Cleveland mills in 1984. Cleveland's two remaining steel producers, Republic Steel and Jones & Laughlin, merged to form LTV Steel in June 1984. LTV Steel declared bankruptcy in 2000. The operation, on both sides of the Cuyahoga River, is Cleveland's last remaining integrated steel mill, now owned by Cleveland Cliffs.
In the Pittsburgh region, mill closures led to a regional unemployment rate that peaked at 17.1% in January 1983, with local unemployment rates as high as 27.1% in Beaver County.[12] Between 1970 and 1990, the region lost 30% of its population.[12]
Transformation
The number of integrated steel mills has continued to decline, and in 2014, only 11 integrated mills were operating in the US. Most of the steel produced has been by the growing number of mini-mills, also called specialty mills, which in 2014 numbered 113. In 1981, mini-mills produced an estimated 15% of US steel.[13] Since 2002, steel produced by electric arc furnace, the process used by the mini-mills, has produced more than half the steel made in the US. Many companies operating integrated mills also have mini-mills.
A number of bankruptcies and acquisitions between 2000 and 2014 reversed the trend of industry fragmentation. In 2000, the top three steelmakers (Nucor, US Steel, and Bethlehem Steel) had 28% of the steelmaking capacity, and the top ten had 58%. By 2014, the top three (Nucor, ArcelorMittal, and US Steel) accounted for 56% of the steel capacity, and the top ten 87%.[14]
Notable defunct 20th-century steel furnaces in the US
Steel is an alloy of iron and carbon with improved strength and fracture resistance compared to other forms of iron. Because of its high tensile strength and low cost, steel is one of the most commonly manufactured materials in the world. Steel is used in buildings, as concrete reinforcing rods, in bridges, infrastructure, tools, ships, trains, cars, bicycles, machines, electrical appliances, furniture, and weapons.
The Bessemer process was the first inexpensive industrial process for the mass production of steel from molten pig iron before the development of the open hearth furnace. The key principle is removal of impurities from the iron by oxidation with air being blown through the molten iron. The oxidation also raises the temperature of the iron mass and keeps it molten.
Wrought iron is an iron alloy with a very low carbon content in contrast to that of cast iron. It is a semi-fused mass of iron with fibrous slag inclusions, which give it a wood-like "grain" that is visible when it is etched, rusted, or bent to failure. Wrought iron is tough, malleable, ductile, corrosion resistant, and easily forge welded, but is more difficult to weld electrically.
Steelmaking is the process of producing steel from iron ore and/or scrap. In steelmaking, impurities such as nitrogen, silicon, phosphorus, sulfur, and excess carbon are removed from the sourced iron, and alloying elements such as manganese, nickel, chromium, carbon, and vanadium are added to produce different grades of steel.
A steel mill or steelworks is an industrial plant for the manufacture of steel. It may be an integrated steel works carrying out all steps of steelmaking from smelting iron ore to rolled product, but may also be a plant where steel semi-finished casting products are made from molten pig iron or from scrap.
Anthracite iron or anthracite pig iron is iron extracted by the smelting together of anthracite coal and iron ore, that is using anthracite coal instead of charcoal in iron smelting. This was an important technical advance in the late-1830s, enabling a great acceleration of the Industrial Revolution in the United States and in Europe.
An ironworks or iron works is an industrial plant where iron is smelted and where heavy iron and steel products are made. The term is both singular and plural, i.e. the singular of ironworks is ironworks.
Puddling is the process of converting pig iron to bar (wrought) iron in a coal fired reverberatory furnace. It was developed in England during the 1780s. The molten pig iron was stirred in a reverberatory furnace, in an oxidizing environment to burn the carbon, resulting in wrought iron. It was one of the most important processes for making the first appreciable volumes of valuable and useful bar iron without the use of charcoal. Eventually, the furnace would be used to make small quantities of specialty steels.
Union Railroad is a Class III switching railroad located in Allegheny County in Western Pennsylvania. The company is owned by Transtar, Inc., which is a subsidiary of Fortress Transportation and Infrastructure Investors, after being acquired from U.S. Steel in 2021. The railroad's primary customers are the three plants of the USS Mon Valley Works, the USS Edgar Thomson Steel Works, the USS Irvin Plant and the USS Clairton Coke Works.
Iron plantations were rural localities emergent in the late-18th century and predominant in the early-19th century that specialized in the production of pig iron and bar iron from crude iron ore.
Kaiser Steel was a steel company and integrated steel mill near Fontana, California. Industrialist Henry J. Kaiser founded the company on December 1, 1941, and workers fired up the plant's first blast furnace, named "Bess No. 1" after Kaiser's wife, on December 30, 1942. Then in August 1943, the plant would produce its first steel plate for the Pacific Coast shipbuilding industry amid World War II.
Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. is an American steel manufacturer based in Cleveland, Ohio. They specialize in the mining, beneficiation, and pelletizing of iron ore, as well as steelmaking, including stamping and tooling. The company was the world's 25th-largest steel producer and the third-largest in the United States in 2022. It is the largest flat-rolled steel producer in North America.
The Edgar Thomson Steel Works is a steel mill in the Pittsburgh area communities of Braddock and North Braddock, Pennsylvania. It has been active since 1875. It is currently owned by U.S. Steel and is known as Mon Valley Works – Edgar Thomson Plant.
Ferrous metallurgy is the metallurgy of iron and its alloys. The earliest surviving prehistoric iron artifacts, from the 4th millennium BC in Egypt, were made from meteoritic iron-nickel. It is not known when or where the smelting of iron from ores began, but by the end of the 2nd millennium BC iron was being produced from iron ores in the region from Greece to India, The use of wrought iron was known by the 1st millennium BC, and its spread defined the Iron Age. During the medieval period, smiths in Europe found a way of producing wrought iron from cast iron, in this context known as pig iron, using finery forges. All these processes required charcoal as fuel.
Before 1800 A.D., the iron and steel industry was located where raw material, power supply and running water were easily available. After 1950, the iron and steel industry began to be located on large areas of flat land near sea ports. The history of the modern steel industry began in the late 1850s. Since then, steel has become a staple of the world's industrial economy. This article is intended only to address the business, economic and social dimensions of the industry, since the bulk production of steel began as a result of Henry Bessemer's development of the Bessemer converter, in 1857. Previously, steel was very expensive to produce, and was only used in small, expensive items, such as knives, swords and armor.
The Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad Company (1852–1952), also known as TCI and the Tennessee Company, was a major American steel manufacturer with interests in coal and iron ore mining and railroad operations. Originally based entirely within Tennessee, it relocated most of its business to Alabama in the late nineteenth century, following protests over its use of free convict labor. With a sizable real estate portfolio, the company owned several Birmingham satellite towns, including Ensley, Fairfield, Docena, Edgewater and Bayview. It also established a coal mining camp it sold to U.S. Steel which developed it into the Westfield, Alabama planned community.
The Lackawanna Steel Company was an American steel manufacturing company that existed as an independent company from 1840 to 1922, and as a subsidiary of the Bethlehem Steel company from 1922 to 1983. Founded by the Scranton family, it was once the second-largest steel company in the world. Scranton, Pennsylvania, developed around the company's original location. When the company moved to a suburb of Buffalo, New York, in 1902, it stimulated the founding of the city of Lackawanna.
Iron mining in the United States produced 48 million metric tons of iron ore in 2019. Iron ore was the third-highest-value metal mined in the United States, after gold and copper. Iron ore was mined from nine active mines and three reclamation operations in Michigan, Minnesota, and Utah. Most of the iron ore was mined in northern Minnesota's Mesabi Range. Net exports were 3.9 million tons. US iron ore made up 2.5 percent of the total mined worldwide in 2015. Employment as of 2014 was 5,750 in iron mines and iron ore treatment plants.
In 2022, the United States was the world's third-largest producer of raw steel, and the sixth-largest producer of pig iron. The industry produced over 74 million net tons per year as of November 2024. Most iron and steel in the United States is now made from iron and steel scrap, rather than iron ore. The United States is also a major importer of iron and steel, as well as iron and steel products.
The British and Tasmanian Charcoal Iron Company (BTCIC) was an iron mining and smelting company that operated from 1874 to 1878 in Northern Tasmania, Australia. It was formed by floating the operations of a private company, the Tasmanian Charcoal Iron Company that operated between 1871 and 1874.
References
↑ Norman J. G. Pounds and William N Parker, Coal and Steel in Western Europe (Bloomington: Indiana Univ. Press, 1957) 22.
↑ US Geological Survey, 2001, Silent reminders, Geologic Wonders of the George Washington and Jefferson National Forests, No. 3.
↑ John S.Brown, "Ore deposits of the northeastern United States," in, John D. Ridge (ed.), Ore Deposits of the United States, 1933-1967 (New York:American Institute of Mining Engineers, 1970) 2-4.
↑ Martha S. Carr and Carl E. Dutton, 1959, Iron-Ore Resources of the United States, Including Alaska and Puerto Rico, US Geological Survey, Bulletin 1082-C, p.66-67.
↑ James M. Swank, "The manufacture of iron and steel in the United States," in: Mineral Resources of the United States, 1883 and 1884, US Geological Survey, 1885, p.247.
↑ W. H. Dennis, 100 Years of Metallurgy (Chicago: Aldine, 1963) 79-80.
1 2 Yeomans, "36 Hours: Scranton, Pa.," New York Times, November 1, 2002.
↑ Lewis, "The Early History of the Lackawanna Iron and Coal Company: A Study in Technological Adaptation," Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, October 1972.
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