For Immediate Release

Public Relations Division
Public Affairs Department
1170 Eighth Avenue
Bethlehem, PA 18016-7699
(610) 694-3711 - Phone
(610) 694-1509 - Fax

BETHLEHEM, Pa., March 14, 1997 -- Bethlehem Steel Corporation made 1996 profit-sharing payments today to about 13,000 salaried and hourly employees.

Salaried employees will receive profit-sharing payments based upon corporate profitability and/or business unit performance for 1996.

Under the terms of the 1993 master labor agreement between Bethlehem and the United Steelworkers of America, represented employees will receive payments at the Burns Harbor (Ind.) Division, including the Division's Lackawanna (N.Y.) galvanizing and coke operations, and at the Sparrows Point (Md.) Division. Profit-sharing payments are being distributed to employees of these Business Divisions based upon the adjusted annual consolidated income of the Corporation and the individual performance of each Business Division determined by its income before interest and taxes (IBIT).

For represented employees, payments will average about $4,000 at Burns Harbor and $1,450 at Sparrows Point. Represented employees at Pennsylvania Steel Technologies (PST) Inc., BethForge, CENTEC and Structural Products Corporation are covered by the terms of their separate profit-sharing plans. These plans are based on the financial performance of the Divisions. PST, BethForge, CENTEC and Bethlehem Structural Products were not profitable in 1996 and thus there was no profit sharing.

Bethlehem's subsidiary railroads were profitable in 1996 and represented employees of those operations will receive profit-sharing payments based on separate agreements of the individual railroads.

Hank Barnette, Bethlehem's chairman, acknowledged the positive contributions of Bethlehem employees in improving the company's financial position, but cautioned: "During 1997, new low-cost steel capacity will be brought into production by our competitors, and we continue to be concerned about unfairly traded steel imports. And while we have superior production facilities and skilled and dedicated employees producing high quality products, we must continue to work at having competitive costs for each of our product lines. Our challenge for this year is to become better at each and every thing we do."