Yes they are. In the days gone by, forged steel cranks were the way to go and they still are if you're building an all out racing engine. Some factory engines came with forged cranks. The stock small journal 327's and 283 ALL had forged steel cranks. Some of the early high performance 350's came with forged cranks as well. There are many types of steel used for making cranks though, be them cast or forged and some cast cranks these days are just as strong (if not stronger) than older forged ones. There used to be just cast iron, nodular iron and forged steel available. Now, for the most part, there's cast steel, 4130 and 5140 forged steel and super strong 4340 forged steel available. The new cast steel cranks are very cost effective and plenty strong for even most mild racing engines. I have seen forged cranks break in half for no visible reason at all, yet I have seen cast cranks survive season after season in mild race cars. I recommend using forged cranks in serious street and race engines, and stroker's, especially if you are using nitrous or a supercharger. Stay away from the Chinese and Taiwan made junk. I am not a fan of the Mexican made forged cranks either. Those come is all of the late model factory crate engines. Comparing those types of cranks to a high quality crank is like comparing a Chinese made 6 dollar set of sockets to a high quality / high strength set of 80 dollar Snap-On or Mac Tools sockets. There's no comparison, especially when you find-out the cheap, Chinese sockets break the first time you try to use them. Well, "steel" cranks aren't any different except for the fact that when you go "cheap" in an engine, you are asking for a MAJOR failure that takes everything else along with it. Is that worth it? No way! That's why we don't use that kind of crap in our engines, but you sure see that crap in all of the "bargain priced" magazine ad engines out there. You certainly don't need a $4,000 profiled, ultra light, billet steel crank like you'd find in a Nascar engine, or even a $1,500 high quality forged steel crank in well built street / strip engine, but you also certainly don't want to run a $189.00 piece of crap crank in an engine that is going to make some serious power. Just remember, you get what you pay for.