“For 10 years after the steel mills closed here in Pittsburgh I kept hearing about how the mills were coming back and so were all of those jobs.”
Yeah, I remember those days too. College buddies of mine lived in and around “the Burgh”. Pittsburgh & surrounding areas slowly emptied out and all the while those remaining clung to rumors that this mill or that was going to reopen. I suspect that they knew it wasn’t true but a pretty lie is a seductive thing.
They were turning out junk and I was one of many that said it was junk.
There was nothing unusual in getting a 25% reject rate on oilfield pipe coming from American mills.
Japanese pipe was less than 1% reject rate.
The risk of junk being put downhole and getting a blowout was just getting too high.