(the 'Pittsburgh Tariff') was levied by U. S. Steel from 1909 on all steel coming out of the Birmingham region. This was an effort to negate the competitive edge of Birmingham steel over U.S. Steel's own Pittsburgh product. TCI's independence as a separate legal entity from its parent corporation ended in 1952, a century after the founding of the Sewanee Furnace Company, when the it became the Tennessee Coal & Iron Division of U. S. Steel. The memory of the historic importance of TCI was not lost when a short book to celebrate the Tennessee Company's centenary was published by U. S. Steel in 1960: Biography of a Business. Stagnation and decline began in 1962 when a majority of the mines in the Birmingham region were closed as domestic ores and coal were superseded by cheaper foreign products, especially from Venezuela. The 1970s and 80s brought about a downsizing and eventual consolidation of the Fairfield and Ensley works, mirroring the general decline of heavy industry in the US throughout those decades. Current operations The last relic of the Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad Company, the Fairfield Plant, continues to be operated by U. S. Steel as one of its five integrated steel mills in the US. It is the largest steel-making plant in Alabama, employing 2,000 workers as of September 2006, down from a peak of 45,000 during World War II. With a single blast furnace and three basic oxygen process furnaces, amongst other various mills and production facilities, the plant produces 2.4 million tons of raw steel per annum and 640,000 tons of seamless tubular and sheet products, mainly for purchase by the booming oil industry. August 17, 2015, U. S. Steel President and CEO Mario Longhi announced, "We have determined that the permanent shut-down of the Fairfield Works blast furnace, steelmaking and most of the finishing operations is necessary." The decision does not impact Fairfield Tubular Operations or the electric arc furnace (EAF) construction project. 1,600 workers were laid off by November 17, 2015. See also Birmingham District References Further reading Birmingham Rails: Yesterday and Today External links Historic American Engineering Record (HAER) documentation: Manufacturing companies established in 1852 Companies based in Birmingham, Alabama Historic American Engineering Record in Alabama Steel companies of the United States Former components of the Dow Jones Industrial Average Coal companies of the United States Penal labor in the United States U.S. Steel