In the 1870s, steel was massed-produced in Pennsylvania.  Bessemer converters and open hearth furnaces transformed the steel industry into a profitable endeavor.  The new steel industry created a modern industrial society and led many to consider Pennsylvania as the “steel capitol of the world,” a title the state would hold for almost a century.  

Steel remained a very profitable industry in Pennsylvania until the 1960s.  Growth of foreign steel and out-of-date sites in Pennsylvania led to a fifty percent reduction in the steel workforce in the 1980s.  Rough times continued into the early 2000s.  That has changed in the last few years, however, as the steel industry today employs thousands of people and adds billions of dollars to Pennsylvania’s economy.

For more than two centuries, Pennsylvania led America’s and the world’s iron and steel industries.  Today, Pennsylvanian steel companies continue to have a positive impact on the state, national, and world economies and steel industries.