Steel is a ferromagnetic material. Ferromagnetic materials become influenced by magnetic fields, but do not have their own magnetic field, like a permanent magnet. Steel can be manufactured to be a permanent magnet, but most steel is not created to be magnetic. Steel is ferromagnetic because it is mostly made up of iron, which has an outer electron shell that is half full. Unlike other elements like helium, neon, and potassium that have full or mostly full outer shells, the electrons in iron’s outer shell can easily be influenced by a magnetic field to point in a single direction.nYou can learn more about the magnetic properties of steel I n our Is steel magnetic article.