The steel crisis was a crisis of steel production that began in the 1960s and continued to the 1980s. Besides Germany, other EU countries and the United States were also affected because other countries started to mass produce steel as well which led to an increase of competition on the export steel market. The crisis was also influenced by new construction designs as well as new methods in car manufacturing that required less steel. The crisis led to the downsizing and shutdown of facilities. In Germany, the Ruhr district was especially affected. In the beginning of the 1990s, the same countries experienced a new steel crisis which again led to the downsizing of jobs.