Steel prices slide
Pennsylvania's steel companies struggle to compete with cheaper imports

By KRISTA FLEDDERMAN
Collegian Staff Writer

A booming railroad industry, wealthy steel towns and affluent industrialists such as Andrew Carnegie painted the picture of Pennsylvania fewer than 50 years ago.

Today, however, the reality of the steel industry in this state is much different.

At least 340 jobs will be lost this year at the Bethlehem Steel Corporation in Washington due to competition from other countries' steel imports, said Bette Kovak of Bethlehem Steel's public relations department. Already, 500 people have lost their jobs at the company, she said.

President Clinton has tried to solve the problem resulting in mass lay-offs, including those of 3,536 workers in Pennsylvania, said Patrick Carey of the Bureau of Labor Statistics in Washington, D.C.

Clinton's plan includes threatening to "impose quotas on Japanese steel exports into the United States unless those shipments show a quick decline this year following a surge of more than 400 percent in 1998."

Many steel companies, unions and workers feel the proposal is too little too late.

"Fundamentally, Clinton has done very little and is feeling the pinch from labor unions," said Marco Trbovich, assistant to the president of the United Steel Workers of America. He said the exports into the U.S. are "devastating the steel industry."

Where the steel industry was once the leading employer in Pennsylvania, now hospitals, schools and the health-care industry are taking its place, said John B. Frantz, associate professor emeritus of history.

Since the Civil War and until shortly after World War II, the state was a leading steel producer, he said. He attributes the production decline to the competition from Japan and other nations.

"Steel began to decline, not just in Pennsylvania, but elsewhere, too. We didn't keep up with the technology and the Japanese developed high-quality steel," he said.

This is the cause of the loss of jobs and profits steel companies in Pennsylvania are experiencing.

Bethlehem Steel saw a net loss of $23 million for the fourth quarter of 1998, compared to a net income of $42 million for the fourth quarter of 1997, according to its World Wide Web site (www.bethsteel.com).

However, the steel companies are still optimistic they can change the situation.

"We will continue to take all . . . actions to work closely with the administration and the Congress to restore fair trade in steel," said Curtis H. Barnette, chair and chief executive officer of Bethlehem Steel, on the company's Web site.

• Global economic crisis leads nations to 'dump' steel