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by philipkglass
3565 days ago
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The other big thing is that US per-capita steel consumption (including imports and finished products) is significantly down since the 1970s. This says that US steel consumption per capita went from 622 kilograms in 1979 to 451 kilograms in 1988: https://www.worldsteel.org/en/dam/jcr:373b3927-26ff-4591-8e7... More recent numbers here say 348 kilograms per capita in 2003 down to 297 kilograms in 2015: https://www.statista.com/statistics/185031/apparent-steel-us... With a US population of 225 million in 1979 and 322 million in 2015, that means that total US steel consumption is only 68% of what it was in 1979. It doesn't look like domestic production has declined much (if any) faster than domestic consumption since the end of the 1970s. Cars are lighter than in the 1970s, cars last longer than in the 1970s, and non-steel materials are increasingly used in roles that steel was used for in the 1970s. Like parts of cars and making beverage cans. |
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