Economic Profile and Trends
Value of Shipments | Annual Production | Labor Productivity
The steel industry provides about 5% of the total U.S. manufacturing GDP. The industry has undergone a major transformation since its recession of the late 1980s, investing in new process and product technologies and closing older mills. Today's steel industry is technologically sophisticated, employing over 189,000 American production workers in jobs paying about 55% above the average for all U.S. manufacturing. [DOC 2001]
The United States is the largest steel producer in the world, producing 112 million tons of raw steel in 2000, 12% of total world production. [AISI 2001] The industry has recently experienced large levels of imports because of world steel overcapacity resulting from economic downturns in Asia and the CIS. The industry's return on sales for 2000 was -2.8%. [AISI 2001]
The steel industry spends hundreds of millions of dollars annually on R&D. Over the last 25 years, the industry has invested nearly $8 billion in environmental control equipment. [AISI 2001]
Value of Shipments |
$60.6 billion |
Employment |
189,343 |
Average Hourly Wages
(Production Workers) |
$21.49 |
Capital Expenditures |
$1.79 billion |
R&D Expenditures (1997) |
$414 million |
Pollution Abatement Expenditures (1994)
Captial
Operating |
$226.4 million
$1.2 million |
Trade
Imports
Exports
Balance |
$13.7 billion
$5.1 billion
-$8.6 billion |
Source: DOC 1994, DOC 1999, ITA 1999, NSF 1997
The industry's value of shipments amounts to $70 billion annually
About 109 million tons of raw steel were produced in 2000
The number of man-hours to produce a tone of steel has been reduced by 60% in the last 15 years
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