Cheap foreign steel continued entering the U.S. market during the 1990s, hurting small companies and even major corporations such as Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel and Weirton Steel. They and the steelworkers' unions asked the government to limit imports but found little success. Wheeling-Pitt filed for bankruptcy in 2000, and Weirton Steel followed in 2003. Both companies had to cut many jobs, bringing employment down to levels not seen since before World War I.

In 2004, Weirton Steel was sold to a new company and later became part of Cleveland-Cliffs. During these hard times, workers worried about losing their pensions and health insurance. Today, relatively few steel plants remain in West Virginia compared to the boom days, and the U.S. industry is much smaller than it used to be.