Company
ReorganizedU.S. Steel
Pittsburgh · Since 1901
Acquired by Nippon Steel in 2025. The mills still operate under the U.S. Steel name.
U.S. Steel was incorporated in 1901 when J. P. Morgan merged Andrew Carnegie's steel company with its largest rivals. The capitalization, above a billion dollars, was a number the public had not seen attached to a company. It was meant to end price wars by owning both sides of them.
The mills were in Pittsburgh, Chicago, and Gary, Indiana, a city the company laid out on the lake. Gary is the exhibit: a corporation that needed a harbor, a workforce, and a town, and built all three.
The mill town
Steelwork sorted people by heat and skill. Melters, rollers, and the laborers who handled the rest worked turns the furnace set, not a shopkeeper's day. The company employed its own police in some towns and its own chemists in the lab. Immigration filled the gates. A job at the mill was the reason a family had crossed an ocean, which made the corporation a destination as much as an employer.
Sold, and still pouring
The company shrank as minimills and foreign steel took the commodity grades. In June 2025 Nippon Steel completed its acquisition. The mills continue under the U.S. Steel name, with a foreign parent and a set of political conditions attached to the sale. The 1901 corporation, the one formed to be too big to compete with, is now a subsidiary. The work of pouring steel in Gary is not.
The work it organized
- Melter
- Roller
- Mill chemist
- Yard laborer
On the timeline
Related
- KruppReorganized