Steel

At one Orange County construction site, the traditional sounds of home building--hammers thumping on wood--have given way to a more grating noise. The air there rings with what some say are the sounds of the future: screws twisting into metal, saws slicing through steel. Instead of wood frames, the 14 houses on this street will have skeletons of steel. Taylor Woodrow Homes California Ltd. is introducing steel-frame tract housing in Orange County after launching a similar venture in Temecula.

United States Steel Corp.'s fourth-quarter earnings soared as strong pipe sales and an acquisition-related gain boosted results, but the steel maker forecast an operating loss in the current quarter because of the global economic slowdown. The Pittsburgh-based company -- the largest U.S.-based steel producer -- said its net income jumped to $308 million, or $2.65 a share, from $35 million, or 29 cents, a year ago. The earlier quarter included charges totaling $117 million, or 98 cents a share.

Custom builder Busk Homes of Monarch Beach is framing a large custom residence in the Ritz Cove community there for company owner David Busk. The house is framed with light-gauge steel, and since Busk's open house and wall-raising on Oct. 28, the phones have been ringing off the hook with calls from architects and other building industry professionals. The wall-raising occurred under skies that were smoky from the fierce coastal wildfire that had started the day before in Laguna Canyon.

The World Trade Organization ruled Wednesday that the United States acted illegally in deciding to increase duties on Japanese steel imports. A panel of trade experts said the Commerce Department was wrong when it refused to consider information from three Japanese steel companies because their submissions had arrived late. The increased duties were put in place in June 1999 after U.S.

Despite widespread evidence that construction techniques for steel-frame buildings proved inadequate during the Northridge earthquake, building owners will be allowed to use the same methods to repair the damage, Los Angeles city officials said Tuesday. Citing concern about the high cost of inspecting and repairing such buildings, a city panel recommended that building owners be allowed to devise their own inspection and repair plans using current repair methods.

A mini-backlash is brewing against stainless-steel appliances, and it's not necessarily being driven by the price of stainless steel, which has risen as much as 60% in the last year. The cheaper faux stainless appliances -- made from aluminum or even plastic painted to mimic their popular and pricey siblings -- are being sought out by people who want the high-end look without the drawbacks.

The United States has completed negotiations with most of the world's major steel-producing countries on how to allocate U.S. import quotas for the next 2 1/2 years--with increases slated for Poland, South Korea and Mexico, apparently at the expense of Japan. The new allocations are designed to fulfill a promise that President Bush made just before last year's election to extend the steel import quota program that was begun in 1984.

Looking for all the world like pieces from a giant Erector Set, galvanized framing gleams against a blue sky as workers assemble one of the first metal-framed tract houses in Southern California. After decades of using wood to craft their homes, some Southland residential builders are listening to pitches from firms with names like Western Metal Lath and Angelus Metal Systems.

Architectural writer and music critic Thomas Small, 49, and wife Joanna Brody, 44, a public relations consultant, had outgrown their two-bedroom town house in Santa Monica. So in 2004, they bought a "decrepit" Culver City cottage to remodel.

Here in "Steel City," President Bush didn't say a word in public Tuesday about the hot political issue of the day: his expected decision to lift the tariffs he imposed on imported steel last year. But it was on the minds of the steelworkers who demonstrated outside Bush's campaign fund-raiser in Pittsburgh as well as some of the president's Republican supporters who attended the event, underscoring the high political stakes of the trade issue in the 2004 presidential campaign. Thomas J.