The Columbia Steel Company, sometimes shortened to Columbia Steel, is an American steel company headquartered in the state of Oregon. It had its origins in 1901, but did not officially organize under its current name until 1909.[1]
The Columbia Steel Company was organized in 1909 with main offices at 503 Market Street, San Francisco. When formed the company had one plant in Portland, Oregon, established in 1903 and a bigger plant in Pittsburg, California, established in 1909–1910. The company's namesake is the Columbia River. In 1917 the Pittsburg plant (38.0266°N -121.8628°W) had a monthly output of 800 tons open hearth steel and employed 375.[2]
In February 1920 a new rolling mill was opened at the Pittsburg plant.[3] Open hearth furnace capacity reached 7000 tons per month.[4]
From 1918 to 1921 the short-lived Pacific Coast Shipbuilding Company ran a shipyard in neighboring Bay Point. Shipbuilding across the country declined rapidly in the early 1920s at the end of the World War I shipbuilding boom.
January 1923, the Columbia Steel Corporation was formed and acquired all property of the Columbia Steel Company. Dated 1 February 1923, $4,000,000 7% 15-year first mortgage bonds were offered to raise capital for the planned expansion of operations into Utah.[5]
On 1 April 1923, the Torrance, California plant of the Llewellyn Iron Works (33.839°N -118.3159°W) was acquired by the Corporation. The Iron Trade Review characterizes it somewhat differently than the Pacific Marine Review had done in 1919.[6] This may be due to the same plant being operated differently in a market with lower demand.
Construction of the blast furnace at Ironton near Provo, Utah (40.2°N -111.634°W), began in April 1923 and it became operational on 1 May 1924. The rated capacity was 120,000 tons/year. Coke was baked in 33 Becker-type ovens built by the Koppers Co. of Pittsburgh, Pa., with a capacity for cooking 1000 tons of coal per day and production of 207,300 tons of coke per year. Coal was sourced from Columbia's own mines in Carbon County (39.517°N -110.3809°W). Iron ore and limestone from Columbia-owned mines.[7] The Carbon Country Railroad Co. subsidiary was established[8] to build and operate 4.79 miles of track to connect to the coal mine.[9] Map of this track:[10]
The blast furnace went into continuous operation until at least 192; its performance can be tracked during that time with available accurate data. Different recipes were tried in four distinct periods of operation. The furnace cycled between producing basic iron and foundry iron on a roughly monthly schedule.[11]
| Period | From | Until | tons basic iron | avg/day | tons foundry iron | avg/day | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | 1 May 24 | 28 Feb 25 | 45,988 | 314 | 43,986 | 280 | |
| B | 1 Mar 25 | 31 Jan 26 | 54,175 | 376 | 65,000 | 387 | |
| C | 1 Feb 26 | 30 Apr 26 | 13,596 | 348 | 17,249 | 345 | |
| D | 1 May 26 | 31 Aug 27 | 83,046 | 360 | 100,250 | 396 |
In October 1925 Columbia acquired the Milner-Dear-Lerch iron ore holdings, 51 claims covering 921 acres at Iron Mountain, from the Milner Corp. of Salt Lake City.[12]
A warehouse was opened in August 1926 at Connecticut street (today South Royal Brougham Way) and 6th Avenue South in Seattle (47.5923°N -122.326°W).[13]
On 24 November 1926, the Pacific Sheet Steel Corp. of South San Francisco (a Metal & Thermite Corp. subsidiary) was acquired on a stock exchange basis.[14] The plant was to be moved to Torrance.[15] The 6-mill plant had been erected starting July 1923, adjoining the existing Metal & Thermite Corp detinning plant, had opened in April 1924 and was the second such plant on the West Coast, the other being Columbia's own 4-mill works in Pittsburg. Sheet bars were provided by the one-half mile distant plant of the Pacific Coast Steel Company. The principal equipment consisted of 6 stands of hot-rolled 30-inch finishing rolls and 3 stands of 30-inch roughing rolls, driven by a 1500hp motor at 30rpm. There was a 26-inch cold roll at both ends of the hot mill train.[16] The Iron Trade Review called Columbia the sole sheetmaker and largest steel business on the Pacific Coast.[17]
A survey of the West Coast steel industry published in the Iron Trade Review in December 1928 listed only one blast furnace in operation on the Pacific Coast.[18]
The Columbia Steel Corporation became a wholly-owned subsidiary of U.S. Steel in January 1930. The payment was made with 251,771 shares of Common stock of U.S. Steel. The assets were estimated by U.S. Steel to be of a total value of no less than $41,375,000. At the time of acquisition, Columbia Steel owned and operated steel-producing plants and rolling mills at Pittsburg and Torrance, a steel foundry at Portland, a blast furnace and by-product coke plant in Provo, iron, coal, and limestone deposits in Utah[20] and warehouses in San Francisco, Portland, Los Angeles, Seattle.[21]
Almost simultaneously to the above expansion of U.S. Steel into the Far West, the first such acquisition of U.S. Steel west of Illinois and Alabama, Bethlehem Steel acquired the Pacific Coast Steel Company and the "independent" Consolidated Steel Corporation was formed by the merger of 3 Los Angeles based companies (the Llewellyn, Baker, and Union Iron Works).
When surveyed in 1945 by the Steel magazine, the Provo furnace had a capacity of just under 600 tons per day and there were 4 gas-fired and 1 oil-fired open-hearths at Pittsburg.[22] In the 1951 survey the Provo furnace was at 199,200 tons per year.[23]
In 1947 Columbia Steel planned to acquire the Consolidated Steel Corporation, its facilities to be supplied by the Geneva mill. The Justice Department objected, but The Supreme Court ruled in favor of U.S. Steel. Consolidated became a subsidiary of U.S. Steel on 31 August 1948, alongside Columbia. That included all assets of the former Western Pipe and Steel Company, which had been acquired by Consolidated in September 1945.
Erection of a new $25,000,000 cold reduction mill in Pittsburg began in August 1946.[24]
A ceremonial opening on 21 October 1948 for 2000 industrialists, government officials, and civic leaders and on 22 October for 15,089 visitors of the general public of the new cold reduction mill in Pittsburg was attended by the U.S. Steel Board of Directors and broadcast coast-to-coast.[25] The new plant had an annual capacity of 325,000 tons of cold reduced sheets and tin plate. U.S. Steel had invested $120,000,000 since the end of the war in California and Utah. On 24.5 acres under the roof of several buildings, the production line consisted of:
It didn't take long for a second expansion of the sheet and tin capacity to be contemplated. In January of 1951 construction was announced of a new 215,000 tons/year (new total 540,000) cold reduction mill at the Pittsburg site, estimated to cost $28,000,000, It was a 4-stand mill and related equipment including a continuous pickling line, annealing equipment, a continuous galvanizing line and an electrolytic tin plate line.[26]
Effective 31 December 1951 in an internal restructuring of the corporate structure of U.S. Steel, the Columbia Steel Company and the Geneva Steel Company were merged into the Columbia-Geneva Steel Division of the United States Steel Company. Alden G. Roach became president of the division.[27] [28]
In August 1952, the Army decided to reopen Plancor 516 and spend $9,500,000 to convert it to make large castings for military tanks, with Columbia-Geneva operating it.[29]
In the spring of 1958 a third electrolytic tinning line was constructed, increasing the plant's tin plate capacity by 55 percent. The plant had by this point grown to 600 acres, with another 600 acres adjoining being looked at.[30]