Mr. Surma: I think it would be useful, just for some historical perspective, to remember that even though we are, in round numbers, a 100-year-old company ' we celebrated last February our 100th year on the New York Stock Exchange ' at midnight, December 31, we were spun off from the former USX Corporation, which also owned Marathon Oil Company. U. S. Steel and Marathon were separated and as of that date, effective January 1 of this year, we became a new, separate stand-alone steel company with our own separate Board, separate group of shareholders and separate persona ' as we were 100 years before. So it's a bit of a reversal, to some degree. We've gone back to our old name and back to our roots.
TWST: What about the stock symbol? Is that a new stock symbol or an old
one?
Mr. Surma: Under our tracking stock program, the steel portion or our
common stock had always traded under the 'X' symbol, and Marathon stock
under USX had also been traded under 'MRO'; we've each gone back to our
original symbol separately now. That's a bit of history. We are the
largest integrated steel producer in North America. As of a little over
a year ago we added a significant element to our capital base with the
acquisition of a large steelworks in the Slovak Republic, so we now have
a large presence in Central Europe and are the largest flat-roll steel
producer in Central Europe. U. S. Steel Kosice, or USSK, is the name of
the entity, with Kosice being the town in which it's located. And we
have several major steel-producing centers here in the US. Largest, of
course, is our flagship Gary Works in Indiana, named after our first
Chairman, on the southern shores of Lake Michigan. Also, we have right
here in Pittsburgh several plants ' our Edgar Thomson steel producing
plant and the companion Irvin finishing plant ' also an integrated steel
plant in Fairfield, Alabama, and then a variety of joint-interest
companies, finishing facilities and other entities scattered around,
including the largest coking operation in North America in Clairton,
also in the Pittsburgh area, and a large, iron-ore taconite operation in
northern Minnesota. Those would be our major facilities. Our revenues
are north of 6 billion a year. We have about 16,000 employees at USSK
and maybe 20,000 domestically.
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