Duluth Works - Beginning of The End

Beginning of The End

The late 1960s brought to a head many issues affecting the Duluth Works. Besides being over 50 years old, U.S. Steel hadn't heavily invested into modern improvements at the plant. This included basic oxygen furnace (BOF) technology that was already being installed at other U.S. Steel plants to replace the outdated open hearth furnace technology, but wasn't installed at the Duluth Works. Also, foreign steel producers were selling to U.S. customers massive amounts of steel at a far lower price than US steel producers could match, a process known in the industry as "dumping". The plant also was a major source of pollution, another key issue brought to light in the late 1960s. But the main problem was still the lack of a regional market big enough to justify U.S. Steel making multi-million dollar improvements to a facility that wasn't really needed in the first place.