Steel Executives Cautious on Long-Term Prospects
Profits have reappeared in the nation’s steel industry, but company executives said Wednesday that their longstanding problems are not solved.
“Don’t be deceived by the improved financial results of domestic steel producers in early 1987,” said Bethlehem Steel Chairman Walter F. Williams, whose company reported consecutive quarterly profits for the first time in five years.
“No matter where you look, there is just too much supply chasing after today’s steel demand,” he said at the annual convention of the American Iron and Steel Institute.
About 278,000 blue- and white-collar steel jobs disappeared within the last decade and are not coming back, company officials say.
Some of the 175,000 that remained as of 1986 also will disappear.
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