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The Iron and Steel sector processes raw and recycled materials to produce finished and intermediary steel products.

Use the checkboxes below to select an environmental performance and an economic indicator.

Environmental Performance Indicators









Economic Indicators



What is in this chart?

This chart shows total air emissions, as reported annually to EPA’s Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) between 1996 and 2022, by establishments classified into NAICS 3311 (iron and steel mills and ferroalloy manufacturing) and NAICS 3312 (steel product manufacturing from purchased steel). Total air emissions for this sector decreased from 27.4 million pounds in 1996 to 5.0 million pounds in 2022.

What are TRI air emissions?

Total air emissions reported to TRI include fugitive air emissions and stack air emissions. Fugitive air emissions are all releases to air that do not occur through a confined air stream; such emissions may include equipment leaks, releases from building ventilation systems, and evaporative losses from surface impoundments and spills. Stack air emissions are releases to air that occur through a confined air stream, such as stacks, ducts, or pipes.

The quantity of releases does not indicate the level of health risk posed by the emissions. TRI data can vary from year to year at the facility and sector levels for a variety of reasons. For questions about specific values, contact TRI. . In addition to TRI reporting, chemical manufacturers are subject to statutory and regulatory requirements, including permitting.

Select an Economic Indicator Click to View Totals

What is in this chart?

This chart shows total air emissions, as reported annually to EPA’s Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) between 1996 and 2018, by establishments classified into NAICS 3311 (iron and steel mills and ferroalloy manufacturing) and NAICS 3312 (steel product manufacturing from purchased steel). Total air emissions for this sector decreased from 27.4 million pounds in 1996 to 7.6 million pounds in 2018.

What are TRI air emissions?

Total air emissions reported to TRI include fugitive air emissions and stack air emissions. Fugitive air emissions are all releases to air that do not occur through a confined air stream; such emissions may include equipment leaks, releases from building ventilation systems, and evaporative losses from surface impoundments and spills. Stack air emissions are releases to air that occur through a confined air stream, such as stacks, ducts, or pipes.

The quantity of releases does not indicate the level of health risk posed by the emissions. TRI data can vary from year to year at the facility and sector levels for a variety of reasons. For questions about specific values, contact TRI. . In addition to TRI reporting, chemical manufacturers are subject to statutory and regulatory requirements, including permitting.

The Iron and Steel sector is comprised of two distinct facility types that manufacture:

  • Iron, steel and ferroalloy intermediary and finished products from raw or recycled materials. (NAICS 3311)
  • Steel products from purchased steel materials. (NAICS 3312).

Steel is produced by either processing iron ore and other raw materials in an "integrated" steel mill or by reprocessing recycled steel in an electric arc furnace (EAF) mill. Both production processes fall under the same industry classification code (NAICS 3311). Steel product manufacturing facilities (NAICS 3312) purchase steel materials from integrated or EAF mills and further process those materials into finished products.

Data presented in the Snapshot cover both iron and steel mills (NAICS 3311) and plants producing steel products from purchased steel materials (NAICS 3312). The number of facilities reporting data for the most recent year represented in the Snapshot charts for each environmental indicator are shown below:

Indicator EPA Program Facilities Reporting
Air Emission Toxic Release Inventory 298
Criteria air pollutants National Emission Inventory 318
Greenhouse gases Inventory of Greenhouse Gas Emissions & Sinks Not available
Hazardous waste National Biannual Report 230
Production-related waste managed Toxic Release Inventory 395
Recycling of waste chemicals Toxic Release Inventory 35
Releases to land Toxic Release Inventory 28
Water discharges Toxic Release Inventory 171

NOTE: Variation in facilities counts between indicators reflects differences in reporting requirements. For more information, click on the program links in the chart description.

The Smart Sectors Iron and Steel Sector Information page has more details on the industry and related EPA programs.

Air Emissions

How to Download Your Data
  1. Go to https://www.epa.gov/enviro/tri-ez-search.
  2. Scroll down and click on “Flat (Denormalized) Form R – A flat view of the TRI database that contains a majority of the available TRI information.
  3. Select the following variables from the list of data elements provided.
    1. Reporting Year
    2. In the row immediately below Air Total Release check the box above SUM
    3. Primary NAICS Code
  4. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click on “STEP 3: Enter Search Criteria”
  5. On the next page:
    1. For Reporting Year – switch Operator Definition to “Between.” In the Search Value field, enter the first year shown in the Sector Snapshots chart, followed by “AND”, and the last year shown in the Sector Snapshots chart. For example, if the first year is 1996 and the last year is 2022, enter “1996 AND 2022” in the Search Value field. In the Sort Column field, enter “1.” (You can leave the other columns blank or unchanged.)
    2. For Primary NAICS Code – switch Operator to “Beginning with,” and enter “3311” under Search Value. Then check the last box to the right under “Where Only.”
    3. Click on “Search database” or “Output to CSV File”
  6. Repeat steps three through five with NAICS code “3312” and sum the corresponding values
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Criteria Air Pollutants

How to Download Your Data

Note: The data are available in a tab or comma-delimited text format that must be imported into a program that will allow you to analyze the file (such as Excel).

  1. Go to: Get Air Emissions Data | US EPA which has a table with yearly data tables. Download the data years desired.
  2. In the “Table of Air Emissions Data by Year and Time”, select the relevant NEI file under the Triennial NEI column for years within the range of the Snapshot Sectors Graphic.
  3. For 1996 – 2005, select the file with “naics” or “sics” in the file name. For example, for 2000, use the “2000sicsummarymade09” file, but for 2005, use the “naics_summary.zip” file.
  4. For 2008 and onwards, click the “Data Summaries” hyperlink, then download the “Facility-level by Pollutant” File.
  5. Iron and Steel manufacturing facilities are grouped under SIC codes 3312, 3313, 3315, 3316, 3317, and 3399 for the years 1996 and 1999 and NAICS codes beginning with 3311 and 3312 for the years 2002 – 2017.
  6. Using the SIC and NAICS variables, filter for iron and steel facilities, then sum total emissions of CO, NOX, VOC, PM10, NH3, and SO2 in each year to arrive at the totals shown in this chart.
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Energy Use

How to Download Your Data
  1. Go to https://www.eia.gov/outlooks/aeo/archive.php
  2. This will bring you to the Annual Energy Outlook (AEO) Products – Archive which contains links to historical data sets.
  3. Under “Supplement Tables,” click on the HTML link for data by year. For each year shown in the Snapshot, users should select the AEO report published the following year for data. For example, for energy use data from 2020, the user should use the 2020 data published in the 2021 Annual Energy Outlook.
  4. Go to Table 30. Iron and Steel Industries Energy Consumption and click on the XLS option.
  5. For each year, copy the value for “Total” under “Energy Consumption”
  6. For other years, it will be necessary to repeat the process above.
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Greenhouse Gases

How to Download Your Data
  1. Go to Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions and Removals | US EPA.
  2. Under “National” select the “EPA's Inventory of U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks”, then select “Annual Report”
  3. In the table presented, navigate to the “Related Data Files” column.
  4. Click on the folder for Chapter 4 – Industrial Processes zip folder.
  5. For each year, 1996 onwards, sum:
    1. In table 4-60 (CO2 Emissions from Metallurgical Coke Production), “total” row, million metric tons CO2e (MMT CO2e)
    2. In table 4-62 (CO2 Emissions from Iron and Steel Production), “total” row, million metric tons CO2e (MMT CO2e)
    3. In table 4-64 (CH4 Emissions from Iron and Steel Production), add 0.05 million metric tons CO2e (MMT CO2e)
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Hazardous Waste Generation

How to Download Your Data
  1. Go to https://rcrapublic.epa.gov/rcrainfoweb/action/modules/br/naics/view
  2. For each reporting cycle, sum the output across all NAICS codes to calculate the total shown in this chart for the year corresponding to that reporting cycle by using the following criteria:
    1. NAICS code: 3311 and 3312
    2. Reporting cycles: Select each year individually that is presented on the Sector Snapshots graphic
    3. You do not need to change the “Generators to Include” dropdown or the “Location” dropdown before hitting submit.
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Production-Related Waste Managed

How to Download Your Data
  1. Go to https://www.epa.gov/enviro/tri-ez-search.
  2. Scroll down and click on “Flat (Denormalized) Form R – A flat view of the TRI database that contains a majority of the available TRI information.
  3. Select the following variables from the list of data elements provided.
    1. Reporting Year
    2. In the row immediately below Total Production Related Waste check the box above SUM
    3. Primary NAICS Code
  4. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click on “STEP 3: Enter Search Criteria”
  5. On the next page:
    1. For Reporting Year – switch Operator Definition to “Between.” In the Search Value field, enter the first year shown in the Sector Snapshots chart, followed by “AND”, and the last year shown in the Sector Snapshots chart. For example, if the first year is 1996 and the last year is 2022, enter “1996 AND 2022” in the Search Value field.
    2. For Primary NAICS Code – switch Operator to “Beginning with,” and enter “3311” under Search Value. Then check the last box to the right under “Where Only.”
    3. Click on “Search database” or “Output to CSV File”
  6. Repeat steps three through five with NAICS code “3312” and sum the corresponding values
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Recycling of Waste Chemicals

How to Download Your Data
  1. Go to https://www.epa.gov/enviro/tri-ez-search.
  2. Scroll down and click on “Flat (Denormalized) Form R – A flat view of the TRI database that contains a majority of the available TRI information.
  3. Select the following variables from the list of data elements provided.
    1. Reporting Year
    2. In the row immediately below Recycling Onsite Current Year Quantity check the box above SUM
    3. Primary NAICS Code
  4. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click on “STEP 3: Enter Search Criteria”
  5. On the next page:
    1. For Reporting Year – switch Operator Definition to “Between.” In the Search Value field, enter the first year shown in the Sector Snapshots chart, followed by “AND”, and the last year shown in the Sector Snapshots chart. For example, if the first year is 1996 and the last year is 2022, enter “1996 AND 2022” in the Search Value field.
    2. For Primary NAICS Code – switch Operator to “Beginning with,” and enter “3311” under Search Value. Then check the last box to the right under “Where Only.”
    3. Click on “Search database” or “Output to CSV File”
  6. Repeat steps three through five with NAICS code “3312” and sum the corresponding values
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Releases to Land

How to Download Your Data
  1. Go to https://www.epa.gov/enviro/tri-ez-search.
  2. Scroll down and click on “Flat (Denormalized) Form R – A flat view of the TRI database that contains a majority of the available TRI information.
  3. Select the following variables from the list of data elements provided.
    1. Reporting Year
    2. In the row immediately below Land Total Release check the box above SUM
    3. Primary NAICS Code
  4. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click on “STEP 3: Enter Search Criteria”
  5. On the next page:
    1. For Reporting Year – switch Operator Definition to “Between.” In the Search Value field, enter the first year shown in the Sector Snapshots chart, followed by “AND”, and the last year shown in the Sector Snapshots chart. For example, if the first year is 1996 and the last year is 2022, enter “1996 AND 2022” in the Search Value field.
    2. For Primary NAICS Code – switch Operator to “Beginning with,” and enter “3311” under Search Value. Then check the last box to the right under “Where Only.”
    3. Click on “Search database” or “Output to CSV File”
  6. Repeat steps three through five with NAICS code “3312” and sum the corresponding values
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Volume of Recycled Goods

How to Download Your Data
  1. Go to https://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/commodity/iron_&_steel_scrap/
  2. For years 2015 – 2019, select the 2020 “Iron and Steel Scrap” report under “Mineral Commodities Summaries”
  3. Sum the values for “Home scrap” and “Purchased scrap” in the first table in the PDF file.
  4. For 2014, repeat the above steps using the 2017 PDF file.
  5. Repeat step 4 for year 1996 – 2013, using the PDF file corresponding to five years after the given year (e.g., 2011 data is from the 2016 report).
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Water Discharges

How to Download Your Data
  1. Go to https://www.epa.gov/enviro/tri-ez-search.
  2. Scroll down and click on “Flat (Denormalized) Form R – A flat view of the TRI database that contains a majority of the available TRI information.
  3. Select the following variables from the list of data elements provided.
    1. Reporting Year
    2. In the row immediately below Water Total Release check the box above SUM
    3. Primary NAICS Code
  4. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click on “STEP 3: Enter Search Criteria”
  5. On the next page:
    1. For Reporting Year – switch Operator Definition to “Between.” In the Search Value field, enter the first year shown in the Sector Snapshots chart, followed by “AND”, and the last year shown in the Sector Snapshots chart. For example, if the first year is 1996 and the last year is 2022, enter “1996 AND 2022” in the Search Value field.
    2. For Primary NAICS Code – switch Operator to “Beginning with,” and enter “3311” under Search Value. Then check the last box to the right under “Where Only.”
    3. Click on “Search database” or “Output to CSV File”
  6. Repeat steps three through five with NAICS code “3312” and sum the corresponding values
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Dollar Value of Gross Output

How to Download Your Data
  1. Go to GDP by Industry | U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA)
  2. Click on Underlying Detail Tables, Annual, 1997-2022
  3. Select “Gross Output by Industry.”
  4. Select “U.Gross Output by Industry (A).” Then on the next page, click “Next Step.” The resulting data table will then load.
  5. Select “Modify” in the upper-right-hand corner of the table. In the resulting window:
    1. Set the scale as “Billions”
    2. Set the start year as “1997”
    3. Set the end year as the last year presented in the graphic.
    4. In the code list, select only “(3311IS) Iron and steel mills and manufacturing from purchased steel.” Do not select any other item in this menu, doing so may double count.
    5. Click “Refresh Table”
  6. Row 1 of the resulting table, labeled “Iron and steel mills and manufacturing from purchased steel" provides the corresponding data shown in this chart for each year.
  7. (Optional) Download the dataset in XLS, CSV, or PDF format.
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Employment

How to Download Your Data

Note: The data are available in a comma-delimited text format that must be imported into a software package that will allow you to analyze the file.

  1. Go to https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/cbp/data/datasets.html
  2. Click on any link labeled “County Business Patterns: YEAR.” On the resulting page, click the “Complete U.S. File” link and download the corresponding file. Repeat this process for each year corresponding to years presented in the graphic.
  3. Open each file in a software package of your choice that can process comma-delimited text files. Repeat the steps below for each file.
  4. For entities with suppressed data, the Census Bureau replaces all employment values with zeroes and this underestimates the total number of employees in each sector. Using your software package, replace the suppression flags with the midpoint of the Data Suppression Flag employment ranges per the table below.
    Empflag Data Suppression Flag Employment Size Class Midpoint
    Min Max
    A 0 19 10
    B 20 99 60
    C 100 249 175
    E 250 499 375
    F 500 999 750
    G 1000 2,499 1,750
    H 2,500 4,999 3,750
    I 5000 9,999 7,500
    J 10,000 24,999 17,500
    K 25,000 49,999 37,500
    L 50,000 99,999 75,000
    M 100,000 >100,000 100,000
  5. In your software package, filter the data for NAICS codes that begin with 3311 and 3312.
  6. With the filter in place, aggregate the “emp” column across all records.
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Produced Goods

How to Download Your Data
  1. Go to https://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/commodity/iron_&_steel/
  2. Use the most recent “Iron and Steel” report under “Mineral Commodities Summaries”
  3. Use the value under "Raw steel production"
  4. Repeat step 3 for year, for reports from 2000 onwards to obtain all historical data.
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