Using level data from the U.S. steel industry, this paper tests and finds support for the hypothesis that firms in a contracting industr y first disinvest from, and then close, their high-cost plants. An investment decision model is estimated using a panel data set composed of the major replacement investments made in forty-three steel plants during the years 1960-81. The results indicate that the firms disinvested from those plants are least likely to remain profitable in an environment of strong competition from imports, minimills, and stagnating domestic demand. Copyright 1988 by MIT Press.