You don't seem to know because you're not saying. No prob, there are lots of things I don't know and my bet is that there are plenty of things you don't know besides historic U.S. steel consumption. What we do know is that all this talk about how the U.S. doesn't make any more steel is a crock. Reality is that we make more steel now than we did when Reagan was president.
We can learn something new every day.
I don't seem to know from the article you posted because it is not provided. What is provided is only part of a picture that can only be fairly presented if we look at the total steel used in the US, total produced in the US and total imported from foreign countries, and those stats over several decades up to the present. Not even to mention the effect of population growth and increased demand for products containing steel.
Anyone who throws out a figure such as total steel produced in the US over many decades and acts as if that proves anything is either very ill informed, or they are trying to hoodlink people they hope are very ill informed.
This article was written to try and debunk criticisms of globalization and its negative impact on the US economy and US citizens. For anyone with a modest understanding of the many factors that affect steel use and production, Samuelson failed spectacularly.
It would be very informative if stats were readily available that told us of all manufactured goods consumed in the US, what percentage were produced in the US and what percentage were imported- now and over several decades. Same for major materials such as steel. Same for major finished goods such as autos and electronics, etc. But those stats are not readily available that I know of. I don't hear such stats presented by the business news networks and publications.