The steel industry should have listened to the founder of Nucor. In 1986, Ken Iverson pointed out that protectionist measures to save the American steel industry had not had the desired effect. He pointed out that only competition - from outside the United States and from emerging U.S companies like his own - could force the industry to compete. Unfortunately, the dinosaurs of steel had other ideas.
U.S Steel, Bethlehem Steel and Republic Steel thought they were impregnable to change, and a little government help could get them through the tough stretch. Now, two of those three companies are gone. And U.S Steel is a shell of itself.
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