| Wheeling-Pittsburgh Corporation | |
| Type: | Defunct |
| Industry: | Metals |
| Fate: | Acquired then liquidated |
| Foundation: | 1920 |
| Successor: | RG Steel, LLC (bankrupt entity) |
| Location: | Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (1920–1986) Wheeling, West Virginia (1986–2013) |
| Products: | raw steel galvanized steel substrate steel coils bridge building sheet metal tin coke |
| Num Employees: | 3,133 (2006)[1] |
Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel was a steel manufacturer based in Wheeling, West Virginia.
The company owned the following factories, all of which are between Benwood, West Virginia, and Steubenville, Ohio.
Wheeling Steel was acquired by Pittsburgh Steel to form the Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel Corporation in December 1968. The merger added:
Wheeling Steel Corporation was organized on June 21, 1920.[1] It consisted largely of the assets of Whitaker iron family and associated families in the Ohio valley and remained under their control for many years.
In 1968, Wheeling Steel merged with Pittsburgh Steel to become the 9th-largest steelmaker in the United States at the time.
The company was slow to modernize its high-cost facilities and accumulated excess debt following a series of modernization programs in the 1960s and 1970s. Combined with labor contract disagreements and a pension crisis in the 1980s, the company filed for bankruptcy protection in 1985.[2]
In 1986, the company closed the Monessen rail mill that employed 200 people.[3] That same year, Wheeling-Pitt opened a galvanizing plant for automotive sheet steel as a joint-venture with Nippon Steel in Follansbee, WV.
The company reduced its employee count from 8,500 in 1985 to 6,500 in 1990.[2] In 1994, Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel reorganized into a holding-company structure, where the newly formed WHX Corporation would become the parent company of Wheeling Pittsburgh Steel.
In 2001, the company filed for bankruptcy protection again after posting a major loss and increasing debt. In 2003, the company emerged from bankruptcy protection after a reorganization that would make it independent of the WHX Corporation.[4]
In an effort to revitalize their aging steelmaking facilities and preserve jobs, Wheeling-Pitt received a $12.5 million loan from Ohio in 2003 to assist in installing a modern electric arc furnace at Steubenville South, supplanting the blast furnace still in use there.[5] The EAF made its first heat in November 2004, and the remaining blast furnace of Steubenville North was idled along with the rest of that facility in May 2005.[6]
Esmark acquired the company in November 2007 after a proxy battle.[7] In May 2008, Esmark shut down the Allenport Works, laying off 240 people.[8]
In August 2008, Severstal acquired Esmark's Wheeling-Pittsburgh holdings for $1.25 billion.[9]
In 2009, Severstal idled most of the former Wheeling-Pitt operations, including Steubenville South and the manufacturing operations in Wheeling. The move laid off over 3,100 workers in West Virginia and Ohio.[10]
In 2011, Severstal sold the former Wheeling-Pitt steelmaking operations to RG Steel, a subsidiary of Renco Group.[11]
In 2012, RG Steel filed for bankruptcy protection and initiated layoffs.[12] [13]
As part of the Chapter 11 bankruptcy liquidation of RG Steel, the Yorkville, Ohio plant was sold back to Esmark, the Martins Ferry, Ohio plant was sold to a local businessman, and the Steubenville, Ohio plant was sold to the metal recycler Herman Strauss.[14]
Steubenville South was purchased and refurbished by a group of investors called Acero Junction,[15] who sold the mill to JSW Steel Ltd for $80.81 million in June 2018.[16] The mill, now operated as JSW Steel Ohio, began melting and casting steel that December.[17] In July 2020, JSW Steel Ohio was idled indefinitely pending upgrade or replacement of the electric arc furnace, affecting 160 employees.[18] On March 8, 2021, JSW Steel announced that the upgrade of the electric arc furnace had been completed, the mill would restart the following week. The mill is now capable of producing 12 inch mini-slabs for JSW Steel's pipe and plate facility in Baytown, Texas.[19]
The Follansbee, WV coke-making facility was retained by Severstal until 2014, when it was sold to AK Steel[20] The facility is currently operated as Mountain State Carbon, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of AK Steel.[21] On February 11, 2022, Cleveland-Cliffs, the owner and operator of the facility since its acquisition of AK Steel in 2020, announced that it would permanently close Mountain State Carbon in the second quarter of 2022, citing the increased usage of hot briquetted iron and scrap in the company's steelmaking decreasing its need for coke. All 288 employees at the facility will be offered positions within Cleveland Cliffs, with a staff of 15 being maintained to comply with the regulations of decommissioning the coke works.[22]
The former Beech Bottom Works site is being refurbished by aluminum producer Jupiter Aluminum to coat aluminum coils.[23]