International Steel Group (2002–2005) A number of factors contributed to the demise of the steel industry in the United States. Along with the imports of less expensive steel, labor relations and lack of technological innovation plagued the industry. By the 2000s, "hundreds of thousands of people employed by the American steel industry had lost jobs and benefits". After Ross acquired LTV, Ross's team approached [then-Commerce Secretary]
Donald Evans when the
George W. Bush White House seemed to be "looking to save thousands of jobs in the beleaguered [steel] industry." By December 2003, the US faced with a trade war with the EU and Japan and the potential of the imposition of retaliatory sanctions worth $2.2bn, the Bush administration lifted the illegal tariffs on steel imports. According to Forbes, the tariffs were intended to help the steel industry and to give a "political advantage" to the Bush administration" in "steel-industry states such as Pennsylvania and West Virginia." Bush won with a narrow margin in West Virginia, a steel industry state which was a Democratic stronghold. In 2000, he had promised to "look out for steelworkers' interests." According to the
New York Magazine, "between the tariffs, China's suddenly insatiable demand for steel, and the U.S. automakers' zero-percent financing push", the price of American steel "soared and Ross took ISG public in December 2003." ISG had acquired Bethlehem Steel assets included including its six massive plants.
Bethlehem Steel, which had been the second largest steel producer in the United States, had filed for
bankruptcy in 2001. Under Ross, the steel workers at LTV returned to work with "new work rules", and without their pensions. Instead they had 401(k)s. On April 22, 2004, U.S. federal bankruptcy Judge L. Edward Friend II ruled that Ohio-based ISG could purchase Weirton Steel, a steel company with 3,000 employees for $237 million. By court order, the assets were then auctioned with most being acquired by
ISG. ISG formed a new division called
ISG Weirton Steel. In April 2005, WL Ross & Company sold
International Steel Group—which by then was a
Fortune 500 company and had acquired Bethlehem Steel, Weirton Steel, Youngstown Sheet and Tube, Republican Steel, and LTV Steel"— to Mittal for $4.5 billion, half in cash and half in stock. Mittal merged with the "International Steel Group (ISG) which had acquired Bethlehem Steel, Weirton Steel, Youngstown Sheet and Tube, Republican Steel, and LTV Steel in 2004." Mittall's American subsidiary Mittall American Steel which was formed in April, 2005. The largest foreign company to acquire American steel companies is Luxembourg-based
Mittal Steel which has been acquiring and merging with companies since 1989 under the tenure of President and CEO,
Lakshmi Mittall. On February 25, 2005, Reuters reported that Mittal Steel, planned on cutting up to 45,000 jobs from 2005 to 2010. In 2006, Mittal Steel completed a merger with
Arcelor thus resulting in a new company known as
Arcelor Mittal. ==Textile industry==