Leading US mfgs want cheap foreign steel at the expense of American mfgs, in particular Bethlehem, and American unions; you reason that therefore the realities of inter-imperial rivalry, at the center of Lenin's and Brenner's theory, have given way to international cooperation at the expense of the nation or at least a complex international vertical integration in which leading US MNCs (e.g. auto producers or Caterpiller) make use of intermediate inputs from firms located in the NICs or Japan (whose steel production doubtless makes complex use of the international division of labor as well).
Again, you see only one side of things. Yes, there is doubtless more use of an international division of labor but this does not mean that these same US MNCs do not find themselves in vicious world market competition with their counterparts in Europe, Japan and to a lesser extent the NICs and indeed because of that (intensified world market competition among nationally based multinationals) need the cheapest steel available. In defending the interests of the capitalist class a whole, the state now must make a decision which fraction or industries must be sacrificed so that US capital as a whole can achieve the competitive superiority on the world market that has become a matter of life and death given the crisis of overproduction. The cannabilization of steel may be the price US capital must pay to have a chance to survive slaughterous competition in the world market.
peace, rakesh