Over two months, the price of flat-rolled steel fell to $250 a ton from more than $320.

Olympic sells, processes, stores and trades flat-rolled steel in the United States and other countries.

Prices for flat-rolled steel, used in making automobiles and appliances, averaged $375 a ton in August.

The decline in prices has spread beyond flat-rolled steel, which accounts for 60 percent of the industry's production.

Nucor plans to build a $200 million mill by 1989 to produce flat-rolled steel using a new process.

Worthington Steel is America's largest independent processor of flat-rolled steel.

And some are moving toward the big companies' bread and butter: the flat-rolled steel used in automobiles and appliance parts.

"Mini-mills had to get into different pastures to continue their growth, and flat-rolled steel is the new area of opportunity."

And the four biggest companies benefited from the fact that their Indiana mills mainly made flat-rolled steel for auto makers, the steel industry's largest customer.

It has spent about $2 billion since 1986 to modernize plants to help it compete in the market for flat-rolled steel.