A lower carbon steel alloy with specific substitutional alloying additions. The alloy is useful in the production of ASTM A516 grade pressure vessel steel plates with excellent HIC resistance. The material has a ferrite-pearlite microstructure, in normalized and stress relieved condition, appropriate for resisting hydrogen induced cracking, with isolated ferrite and pearlite constituents and no continuous pearlite bands. The material exhibits significant low temperature toughness.