Just how bad is the downturn in steel demand? While debate continues over what the most suitable analogy is for the wider economic downturn—the depression of the 1930s or the milder, but still severe, recession of 1973—steel has its own comparison.

"In 1981, we went through a paradigm shift," according to Gregory Mason, chief executive officer of Severstal International. The downturn of the early 1980s had many of the same factors as those that are behind today's slump, and that will shape the steel industry's future in the coming years.

"There were fewer steel workers (in 1981), but the U.S. adapted new technology, reduced costs and had to lay off...