| Sharon Steel Corporation | |
| Industry: | Steel manufacturing |
| Predecessor: | Sharon Steel Hoop |
| Founded: | 1936 |
| Fate: | Bankrupt |
Sharon Steel Corporation was an American steel company. Chairmen included Henry A. Roemer and later, Victor Posner. It went bankrupt in the 1990s.
In late 1992, Sharon Steel Corp. was purchased by Caparo Steel, and later by Duferco Farrell Corp., and remained operating in 2001.
Frank H. Buhl and associates broke ground for the Sharon Steel Co. plant in 1900 in the City of Farrell, Pennsylvania. Sharon Steel Hoop, American Sheet and Tin Plate and the American Steel and Wire companies opened plants nearby, leading to population growth in the Shenango Valley. During the late 1920s, the four plants of U.S. Steel and Sharon Steel Hoop employed around 10,000 workers.
Its predecessor company was the Sharon Steel Hoop Company. In March 1936, $6 million of issues was used to finance Sharon Steel by a banking group headed by Speyer Co. and Hemphill, Noyes Co..
In 1953, Henry A. Roemer was chairman of Sharon Steel Corporation. Sharon Steel Corporation closed a plant that employed 1,100 workers in Lowellville, Ohio in 1960, with all workers fired. The 500 acres in 1977 was owned by Gennaro Paving, while the mill itself was dismantled for scrap.
In 1964, Sharon Steel was utilizing the basic oxygen steelmaking process in its manufacturing, including at its mill in Sharon, Pennsylvania.
Under chairman Victor Posner, in January 1981, Sharon Steel Corporation held 5.1 percent of the GAF Corporation common stock. That May, Sharon Steel sold its holdings in Foremost-McKesson for a substantial profit.
In 1983, Posner was CEO and chairman of Sharon Steel.
In 1985, Sharon Steel lost $64 million, after going in debt $145 million in 1984, during a downturn in the steel industry. It had a negative net worth of $197 million. In 1986, it was reported that Sharon Steel was in default on bond interest payments, and that it was considering seeking protection from creditors. At the time, it was 86% owned by the company NVF, which in turn was largely owned by Posner and Posner's family. n 1987, it was the 12th largest steel producer in the United States. Posner was "ousted" as chairman in 1988, according to Reuters.
When the company emerged from bankruptcy protection in November 1990, it was owned by the Castle Harlan Group. Concerning funding the cleanup of the Sharon Steel tailings site in Midvale, Utah, in 1990, the largest Superfund cleanup settlement ever made with a company in bankruptcy court was announced. The settlement was between Sharon Steel, the EPA, and the state of Utah.
In May 1992, Sharon Steel was based in Farrell, Pennsylvania and employed around 2,700 people. In November 1992, the company laid off its last 500 unionized employees. Around 100 employees remained. After it filed for bankruptcy and closed down in late 1992, Sharon Steel Corp. was purchased by Caparo Steel, and later by Duferco Farrell Corp., and remained operating in 2001.
It closed its large mill in Farrell in November 1992, as well as two steel finishing operations in Howard, Ohio, in response to filing for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy. On July 20, 1993, the company announced that its main mill and two smaller operations would be permanently closed. The United Steelworkers of America had pushed for the designation of permanent closure to allow pension payments to 720 fired Sharon Steel workers. The workers who had been employed by Sharon Steel for at least 20 years were to receive pensions, while another 900 fired workers were without, according to the union.
Sharon Steel operated a large works site in Fairmont, West Virginia, dubbed the Sharon Steel / Fairmont Coke works site. It had been built in 1918 by the Standard Oil Co. of New Jersey, and in 1948, purchased by Sharon Steel. It closed in May 1979. Sharon had been facing $300 million in federal fines for pollution, although in 1982, the EPA agreed to drop the fines if Sharon handled the hazardous waste cleanup itself. In June 1983, Fairmont officials passed an ordinance targeted at Sharon, which banned the permanent disposal of hazardous waste in the city limits. Sharon contested the law to higher courts, arguing it pre-mpted state and federal regulations. In 1985, a judge gave the company an order to control its pollution in Fairmont. It was placed on the Superfund list in 1996. In 2016, the EPA was in talks over addressing contaminated land at the works site. In 2022, the Fairmont City Council was considering developing the land.