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A D V A N C E D M A T E R I A L S & P R O C E S S E S | N O V E M B E R / D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 6
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teemed into a machine that channeled
the metal through a container where
it solidified and was prepared for the
rolling mills. This process replaced the
casting of metal into large molds and
reducing them by forging or rolling in
preparation for the finishing mills.
LOFTY PROJECTS AMID
RISING IMPORTS
In 1961, Bethlehem Steel built a
central research laboratory to compete
with USS who had built its own lab in
1957. Bethlehem built a huge campus
on 1000 acres bulldozed from a moun-
tain. The $35 million project—eight
buildings and a reflecting pool—was
not complete until 1969. It accommo-
dated over 1000 research engineers
and support personnel and was named
Homer Research Laboratory after Beth-
lehem’s chairman, Arthur B. Homer.
From 1960 to 1970, imports
increased from 8% to 17% of total
U.S. steel consumption. Most of the
imported steel came from Japan, which
had increased production from 25 mil-
lion to 100 million tons annually from
nine new plants located at tidewater
ports for ease of importing raw materi-
als and exporting finished product.
In 1964, Bethlehemdecided tobuild
a new mill at Burns Harbor, Ind., featur-
ing a newproduction layout and state-of-
the-art equipment. It became the most
efficient in the country. The first phase
of construction was limited to finishing
operations and ingots were shipped in
from Johnstown and Lackawanna. Blast
furnaces and BOFs were added later to
make it a fully integrated plant.
CONSOLIDATIONS
AND LAYOFFS
The first integrated steel company
to be affected by the new market with
increasing imports was J&L. They sold
an interest in the company in 1968 to
a Texas conglomerate, Ling-Temco-
Vought (LTV)—who had zero experi-
ence in owning a steel mill. A few years
later, the company completed total
ownership of J&L and called it the LTV
Steel Division. Thus, J&L became the
first casualty in the decline of the inte-
grated steel industry. The next com-
pany to disappear from the industry
was Youngstown Iron Sheet and Tube
Co. (YS&T). It closed the Campbell plant
in Youngstown in the late 1970s and
terminated 5000 employees. In 1979,
it sold all remaining plants to LTV and
joined J&L in the LTV Steel Division.
Though the winds of change had
turned, both USS and Bethlehem built
new corporate headquarters in the
early 1970s. USS was first, construct-
ing a $50 million, 64-story office in
downtown Pittsburgh. In 1972, Bethle-
hem built Martin Tower in Bethlehem,
Pa., named for its chairman, Edmund
Martin. The new 21-story tower cost
$35 million. The same year, Bethle-
hem had peak production of 16 million
tons of finished product and earnings
of $200 million. Employment reached
120,000 in the mid 1970s, but 20 years
later only 20,000 workers remained.
USS closed its Youngstown plant
in 1979, a plant with open hearth fur-
naces and finishing mills as old as 1900
and a sheet mill installed in 1935. It had
become obvious that the mills were too
outdated to compete in the newmarket
conditions.
Bethlehem finally built a continu-
ous caster at Burns Harbor in 1975 after
abandoning its first attempt to continu-
ous cast slabs in 1969 at the Johnstown
plant. At this time, the Japanese were
continuous casting 46% of their steel
capacity compared with 11% for the
U.S. integrated steel industry. Foreign
imports held steady at roughly 15%
during the 1970s, but increased to 22%
during the next decade.
In 1977, Bethlehem reported a
loss of nearly $500 million and began
closing parts of the Johnstown and
Lackawanna plants. The company ter-
minated 2500 white-collar workers that
year, 800 from the Homer Research Lab-
oratory and Martin Tower facilities built
just seven years earlier.
For more information:
Charles R.
Simcoe can be reached at crsimcoe1@
gmail.com.
David J. McDonald, president of the steel-
workers union during the strike of 1959.
Courtesy of usw.org.
Bethlehem Steel’s Homer Research
Laboratory. Courtesy of lehigh.edu.
Martin Tower, headquarters of Bethlehem
Steel in Bethlehem, Pa.
U.S. Steel corporate headquarters
in downtown Pittsburgh.