AMERICA'S steel industry long projected an image of an imperious colossus balancing the rest of the economy on its brawny shoulders. It was the basic industry, pouring out the prime ingredient for countless products from can openers to skyscrapers. Steelmakers' decisions on prices were often handed down like baronial decrees, infuriating customers and successive U.S. Presidents. Today the steel industry is a troubled giant, no longer smugly certain of its stellar role. Its management has lagged in adapting new technology to help curb flyaway costs and prices. Competitors from abroad and from other...
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