Dr Barry Morgan warned lives and communities could be crushed if steel plants closed.
Thousands of jobs are under threat after steel giant Tata announced it was pulling out of the UK.
Its biggest plant, in Port Talbot, employs thousands of people.
The Archbishop was speaking at the start of his Presidential Address to the Governing Body of the Church in Wales.
He said: "It is not merely a crisis for Port Talbot and Shotton or even Wales. It is a national crisis. It raises the question of an industrial strategy for the UK, since steel is the foundation of the manufacturing base of this country and affects many other industries.
"What can be done? I am not an economist but it is a fact that business rates in the steel industry in the UK are much higher than in other parts of the EU and energy costs per ton of steel made in the UK are more than double those of Germany.
"Other countries have imposed tariffs on imports and massively subsidised steel production. The danger is that if all steel making plants are closed, once they are gone, the price of steel will increase and that will have far reaching repercussions on our economy and industry.
"It will be too late by then and people in places like Port Talbot, whose lives and communities have been shaped by the steel industry, will have been crushed."
Over 1,000 companies in the UK list one of their main areas of business as the manufacturing or casting of steel, said Dr Morgan.
He said a group of 16 people from Port Talbot's churches and chapels have formed a ministry team to help Tata's chaplain support people struggling with stress.
A debt advice centre has been set up in one of the churches and more food banks opened for the expected extra demand.
The archbishop said: "The prospect of redundancies some months ago galvanised the churches in the town of Port Talbot to support the community as it faced the crisis.
"That has now been overtaken by a far worse prospect of the closure of all steel making plants in the UK.
"The future however looks bleak for the town of Port Talbot, as it did in the past for Ebbw Vale and Llanwern."
