U.S. Steel
The United States Steel Corporation is an American steel company based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, that maintains production facilities at several additional locations in the U.S. and Central Europe. The company produces and sells steel products, including flat-rolled and tubular products for customers in industries across automotive, construction, consumer, electrical, industrial equipment, distribution, and energy. Operations also include iron ore and coke production facilities. In 2025, U.S. Steel was acquired by Nippon Steel in a deal arranged with the United States government.
U.S. Steel ranked eighth among global steel producers in 2008 and 24th by 2022, remaining the second-largest in the U.S. behind Nucor. Renamed USX Corporation in 1986, it reverted to U.S. Steel in 2001 after spinning off its energy assets, including Marathon Oil. In December 2023, Nippon Steel announced a $14.9 billion acquisition of U.S. Steel, retaining its name and Pittsburgh headquarters. The deal faced opposition from the United Steelworkers, the Trump presidential campaign, and the Biden administration, which formally blocked it in January 2025. U.S. Steel and Nippon Steel sued the administration, claiming the block was unlawful. The acquisition was finalized on June 18, 2025, making U.S. Steel a subsidiary of Nippon Steel North America, with an oversight role for the federal government of the United States through a golden share.
History
20th century
In 1901, J. P. Morgan created U.S. Steel by merging Carnegie Steel, Federal Steel, and National Steel for $492 million, roughly equivalent to $18 billion today.During its peak years, U.S. Steel, then known on Wall Street as "The Corporation," was known more for its size than its efficiency or innovation. In 1901, the company was far and away the largest steel manufacturer, producing roughly two-thirds of the nation's steel. The company also operated the largest commercial fleet on the Great Lakes through its Pittsburgh Steamship Company. Due to large debts from its founding, since Andrew Carnegie demanded gold bonds for his share, and concerns about antitrust lawsuits, U.S. Steel operated cautiously.
In 1902, its first full year of operations, U.S. Steel made 67 percent of all the steel produced in the United States. Roughly a century later, however, in 2001, that production fell to only eight percent.
For much of the 20th century, U.S. Steel was both the world's largest steel producer and its largest corporation. It was capitalized at $1.4 billion, making it the world's first billion-dollar corporation, although the U.S. Bureau of Corporations would later value it at around $700 million.
The company's headquarters was located in the Empire Building in New York City; where it remained one of the building's largest tenants for 75 years. Charles M. Schwab, the Carnegie Steel executive who originally suggested the merger to Morgan, ultimately emerged as the new corporation's first President.
In 1907, U.S. Steel acquired its largest competitor, the Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad Company, headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama, and Tennessee Coal was replaced on the Dow Jones Industrial Average by General Electric. The following year, in March 1908, the company formed the Committee on Safety of United States Steel following chairman Elbert H. Gary's meetings with safety managers of the operating companies, leading to the introduction of the modern "Safety First" movement. The committee's formation was intended to enhance workplace safety, reduce worker accidents, and safeguard the company against criticisms and legal liability.
U.S. Steel's primary competitor, Bethlehem Steel, led by former U.S. Steel president Charles M. Schwab, was quicker to innovate. By 1911, U.S. Steel's market share had dropped to 50 percent. That same year, James A. Farrell became president and held the position until 1932.
Also in 1911, Standard Oil was broken up by the federal government, and the U.S. government attempted to use federal antitrust laws to break up U.S. Steel, but proved unsuccessful in doing so.
In a 2008 book, author Douglas Blackmon argued that U.S. Steel’s growth in the South was attributable partly to cheap Black labor and exploited convicts. The company, Blackmon argued, leveraged Black Codes and discriminatory laws to obtain Black workers at lower costs and had agreements with over 20 Alabama counties to use convict labor, paying locals nine dollars a month per worker. Many prisoners were forced into mines under harsh conditions, with some dying from abuse and malnutrition. This convict leasing system persisted into the late 1920s and was widespread across eight Southern states, benefiting companies and farmers alike.
U.S. Steel ranked 16th among United States corporations in the value of its World War II production contracts. Production peaked at more than 35 million tons in 1953. Its employment was greatest in 1943, when it had more than 340,000 employees.
The federal government intervened to try to control U.S. Steel. In 1952, President Harry S. Truman attempted to take over the company's steel mills to resolve a crisis with its union, the United Steelworkers of America. The Supreme Court blocked the takeover by ruling that the president did not have the Constitutional authority to seize the mills. President John F. Kennedy was more successful in 1962 when he pressured the steel industry into reversing price increases that Kennedy considered dangerously inflationary.
According to author Dan Carter in The Politics Of Rage: George Wallace, The Origins Of The New Conservatism, And The Transformation Of American Politics, U.S. Steel did not support the Kennedy administration’s efforts to involve Alabama businesses in the desegregation of the University of Alabama, which Governor George Wallace had opposed.
In 1963, although the firm employed more than 30,000 workers in Birmingham, Alabama, company president Roger M. Blough "went out of his way to announce that any attempt to use his company position in Birmingham to pressure local whites was 'repugnant to me personally' and 'repugnant to my fellow officers at U.S. Steel.
In the years following World War II, the steel industry and heavy manufacturing went through a restructuring, leading to a decline in U.S. Steel's need for labor, production, and portfolio. Many jobs moved offshore. By 2000, the company employed 52,500 people.
File:U. S. Steel Tower from Duquesne University, 2023-05-04, 02.jpg|thumb|U.S. Steel Tower in Downtown Pittsburgh
In the early days of the Reagan administration, steel firms won substantial tax breaks in order to compete with imported goods. But instead of modernizing their mills, steel companies shifted capital out of steel and into more profitable areas. In March 1982, U.S. Steel took its concessions and paid $1.4 billion in cash and $4.7 billion in loans for Marathon Oil, saving approximately $500 million in taxes through the merger. The architect of tax concessions to steel firms, Senator Arlen Specter, complained that "we go out on a limb in Congress and we feel they should be putting it in steel." The events are the subject of "The U.S. Steal Song" by folk singer Anne Feeney.
In 1984, the federal government prevented U.S. Steel from acquiring National Steel, and political pressure from the United States Congress, as well as the United Steelworkers, forced the company to abandon plans to import British Steel Corporation slabs. U.S. Steel finally acquired National Steel's assets in 2003, after National Steel went bankrupt. As part of its diversification plan, U.S. Steel acquired Marathon Oil on January 7, 1982, and Texas Oil and Gas several years later. In 1986, it reorganized its holdings as USX Corporation with U.S. Steel renamed USS, Inc. as a major subsidiary.
About 22,000 USX employees stopped work on August 1, 1986, after the United Steelworkers of America and the company could not agree on new employee contract terms. This was characterized by the company as a strike and by the union as a lockout. This resulted in most USX facilities becoming idle until February 1, 1987, seriously degrading the steel division's market share. A compromise was brokered and accepted by the union membership on January 31, 1987. On February 4, 1987, three days after the agreement had been reached to end the work stoppage, USX announced that four USX plants would remain closed permanently, eliminating about 3,500 union jobs.
In late 1986, Corporate raider Carl Icahn launched a hostile takeover of the steel giant in the midst of the work stoppage. He conducted separate negotiations with the union and with management and proceeded to have proxy battles with shareholders and management. But he abandoned all efforts to buy out the company on January 8, 1987, a few weeks before union employees returned to work. By the late 20th century, U.S. Steel earned most of its revenue from energy operations.
21st century
In 2001, under CEO Thomas Usher, it spun off Marathon and other non-steel assets, except Transtar, and expanded internationally by acquiring plants in Slovakia and Serbia.During the early 2010s, U.S. Steel modernized its software systems across its manufacturing facilities. Facing financial challenges, the company sold its underperforming Serbian mills near Belgrade to the Serbian government in January 2012. In 2014, U.S. Steel’s falling market value caused its removal from the S&P 500 and its transfer to the S&P MidCap 400.
However, in October 2019, U.S. Steel made a bold strategic move by investing $700 million in Big River Steel, securing a 49.9% ownership stake in the pioneering LEED-certified steel facility. Doubling down on its bet, U.S. Steel announced in December 2020 that it would acquire the remaining interest in Big River Steel for $774 million, finalizing the acquisition in January 2021.
In February 2022, U.S. Steel began construction on a new mill in Osceola, Arkansas which will be operational by 2024. In April 2022, the electric arc furnace flat-rolled Big River Steel mill in Osceola became the first ResponsibleSteel site certified in North America following an independent audit by SRI Quality System Registrar.