The steel industry in the United States has seen its share of setbacks, including a wave of bankruptcies in the 1990s, and it’s still reeling from the devastation of the Great Recession.
But for decades, the industry has managed to get by with the very same products, and the most notable is the iconic steel used to make everything from steel and aluminum to building materials and even some of the cars we drive.
Now, it has a new crisis in the making: the Great Lakes steel boom.
In addition to the major steel mills in the U.S., the industry is also home to dozens of small mills, which are largely run by companies that have a stake in the supply chain.
The result is that, by some measures, the American steel industry has been a net contributor to the nation’s economic growth since the mid-1980s, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
In 2010, for instance, the sector brought in $3.7 trillion in trade-expense revenue.
That amount was up from $1.5 trillion the year before, according the institute.
In fact, the boom has been so strong that the steel sector has actually lost a bit of its market share over the past several years.
In the past five years, the steel market grew by a mere 0.7 percent, according a recent study from the University of Michigan’s Economic Policy Center.
But that trend could change.
For the past decade, demand for steel products in the steel and metal sectors has been growing faster than the industry’s supply, according that study.
That’s led to a glut of steel, which has resulted in prices that are higher than what steelmakers would like.
The glut of supply is not good news for the U, which is reliant on imports to produce nearly all of its steel.
But the glut has also led to some companies taking a hit.
Last week, Steelworkers Local 1999 announced that it would lay off 5,500 employees in Michigan, which includes the region where it has its headquarters.
But Steelworkers, which represents more than 300,000 workers in Michigan and across the country, argued that its actions were not designed to take away from its customers, the Detroit News reported.
Instead, the company’s decision to cut workers and the fact that the layoffs were voluntary were meant to save money and “protect jobs in the long run,” the union said.
The layoffs are expected to start this week and continue through the end of the month.
But as the steel industries’ supply glut continues to grow, the crisis is being felt in other industries.
In 2014, the auto industry saw a major slowdown as demand from China slowed.
And now, the glut of demand for vehicles has pushed up gasoline prices and forced automakers to cut back on their production.
The automotive industry was a major driver of the steel boom and the resulting economic impact.
As part of the auto bailout, Congress and the administration agreed to invest $1 trillion in new factories and facilities to make cars more fuel-efficient.
The money is expected to be used to build an additional 700,000 jobs over the next five years.
But while the auto and auto-parts industries are seeing their supply glut shrink, they are not the only ones struggling.
The steel and iron industry has also seen a massive contraction in output in recent years.
The industry lost more than 1.4 million jobs in 2016, according an Economic Policy Report analysis.
But many of those workers were not necessarily the ones who were losing their jobs.
Many of those layoffs have occurred as the industry struggles to fill orders.
And as those jobs are eliminated, the demand for the steel, aluminum and other products will be lower, according several analysts.
As the United Steelworkers union puts it, the “sudden and dramatic” loss of jobs in this industry “can’t be explained by any shortage of steel in the marketplace or lack of demand.”
In fact of course it can.
But it can also be blamed on a variety of factors, including lower demand and a lack of confidence in the industry.
A recent article in The Wall Street Journal highlighted one of those factors.
The article points out that the U-turn by the auto companies has had the effect of raising prices for American consumers, especially in the Midwest, which was already suffering from a glut in the manufacturing sector.
While the price increases are likely to hurt American consumers more than they will hurt their employers, the article notes, the effect could be “a big blow to the American economy.”
The article cites research that found a large portion of the job losses in the automotive industry are in part attributable to the downturn in demand.
That means the automakers are taking advantage of the glut in steel in order to fill demand in other markets, which in turn leads to lower wages.
The economic downturn, however, is also the reason that companies are looking for other ways to make money.
As Bloomberg News reported, some companies are using the steel shortage as an opportunity to buy back stock. That is,
