Maryland Steel, in

Sparrows Point Sparrow's Point is an unincorporated community in Baltimore County, Maryland, United States, adjacent to Dundalk. Named after Thomas Sparrow, landowner, it was the site of a very large industrial complex owned by Bethlehem Steel, known for steelm ...

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean t ...

, US, was founded in 1887. It was acquired by

Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation Bethlehem Steel Corporation Shipbuilding Division was created in 1905 when the Bethlehem Steel Corporation of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, acquired the San Francisco shipyard Union Iron Works. In 1917 it was incorporated as Bethlehem Shipbuilding C ...

in 1916 and renamed as the Bethlehem Sparrows Point Shipyard. The shipyard was sold in 1997 to Baltimore Marine Industries Inc.. In 2012, it was owned by Barletta Industries, which had converted it to the Sparrows Point Shipyard and Industrial Complex. As of 2021, it is owned by Sparrows Point Terminal, LLC and has been renamed Tradepoint Atlantic.

History

Maryland Steel built

tug A tugboat or tug is a marine vessel that manoeuvres other vessels by pushing or pulling them, with direct contact or a tow line. These boats typically tug ships in circumstances where they cannot or should not move under their own power, suc ...

s, coastal passengers, dredges, cargo ships and a few destroyers. Following the purchase by Bethlehem, it serviced and repaired ships and manufactured industrial products. One famous vessel built in this early period was the , launched as ''Shawmut'', which, in 1914, was the first ship to transit the Panama Canal. Facilities at the yard included a

graving dock A dry dock (sometimes drydock or dry-dock) is a narrow basin or vessel that can be flooded to allow a load to be floated in, then drained to allow that load to come to rest on a dry platform. Dry docks are used for the construction, maintenance, ...

, a

floating drydock A dry dock (sometimes drydock or dry-dock) is a narrow basin or vessel that can be flooded to allow a load to be floated in, then drained to allow that load to come to rest on a dry platform. Dry docks are used for the construction, maintenance, ...

and two full-service outfitting piers which together provided nearly 3,000 feet of berthing space.

World War II

During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, the Sparrows Point Shipyard built ships as part of the U.S. government's

Emergency Shipbuilding Program The Emergency Shipbuilding Program (late 1940 – September 1945) was a United States government effort to quickly build simple cargo ships to carry troops and materiel to allies and foreign theatres during World War II. Run by the U.S. Maritime ...

to help re-build the

British Merchant Navy The Merchant Navy is the maritime register of the United Kingdom and comprises the seagoing commercial interests of UK-registered ships and their crews. Merchant Navy vessels fly the Red Ensign and are regulated by the Maritime and Coastguard ...

Liberty ship Liberty ships were a class of cargo ship built in the United States during World War II under the Emergency Shipbuilding Program. Though British in concept, the design was adopted by the United States for its simple, low-cost construction. Ma ...

production was a primary goal of the yard. The shipyard also constructed 21 ''Cimarron''-class oilers from 1938 to 1946. Once part of a chain of 17 shipyards operating under BethShip, the Sparrows Point Shipyard was the only location remaining by 1990.

Baltimore Marine Industries, Inc.

In October 1997, the shipyard was sold to the Veritas Capital Fund, a New York-based merchant banking and investment firm which built a $300 million cold rolling mill complex on the site which opened in 1999. Veritas reorganized the facility as Baltimore Marine Industries, Inc. (BMI) and won two US Navy contracts for new ship construction and dismantling of older tonnage. Although BMI was selected to build a fleet of deluxe cruise ships, the cruise line was never able to secure financing. With no orders on the horizon and no work aside from the two modest Navy contracts, BMI collapsed in

bankruptcy Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debto ...

in 2003.U.S. Court of Appeals for 4th Circuit Case N0. 06-1206 (BAMI Vs. Maersk Line), 9 Feb 2001
/ref>

Barletta Industries

All assets were purchased by Barletta Industries Inc. in 2004 and reorganized as the Sparrows Point Shipyard and Industrial Complex. Barletta claims it has modernized the infrastructure and refurbished the yard to prepare for leasing specific yard structures, buildings and land to companies in maritime and heavy industry.

Liquidation

The plant continued to change hands, from

ArcelorMittal ArcelorMittal S.A. is a Luxembourgian multinational steel manufacturing corporation headquartered in Luxembourg City. It was formed in 2006 from the takeover and merger of Arcelor by Indian-owned Mittal Steel. ArcelorMittal is the second ...

Severstal Severstal (russian: Северсталь, , Northern Steel) is a Russian company mainly operating in the steel and mining industry, headquartered in Cherepovets. Severstal is listed on the Moscow Exchange and LSE and is the largest steel compan ...

(for $810 million) to

Renco Group Renco Group is an American New York City-based holding company controlled by Ira Rennert that invests in other companies across a range of industries. History In August 2004, it was announced that Ronald Perelman's MacAndrews & Forbes Holding ...

(R.G. Steel; for $1.2 billion) and finally to liquidator Hilco Trading in 2012 (for $72 million). Hilco sold the plant's cold mill to

Nucor Nucor Corporation is an American producer of steel and related products based in Charlotte, North Carolina. It is the largest steel producer in the United States, the largest "mini-mill" steelmaker (i.e. it uses electric arc furnaces to melt s ...

in 2013. The blast furnace was demolished in January 2015. The property is now owned by Sparrows Point Terminal, LLC, a partnership of Hilco and Redwood Capital Investments, who has renamed it "Tradepoint Atlantic". The site has been granted "zoning flexibility" and Enterprise Zone tax credits. Future tenants include

FedEx FedEx Corporation, formerly Federal Express Corporation and later FDX Corporation, is an American multinational conglomerate holding company focused on transportation, e-commerce and business services based in Memphis, Tennessee. The name "Fe ...

.Pamlea Wood,
Former Sparrows Point steel mill gets new name
, 12 January 2016.

References

{{reflist

External links

Papers of Frederick W. Wood
at

Hagley Museum and Library The Hagley Museum and Library is a nonprofit educational institution in unincorporated New Castle County, Delaware, near Wilmington. Covering more than along the banks of the Brandywine Creek, the museum and grounds include the first du Po ...

. Wood was a designer and constructor of the Sparrows Point steel plant and shipyard. He was also its president through its sale to the Bethlehem Steel Company. * Th
Research notes on Bethlehem Steel Corporation
at

consist of materials collected by John B. Lovis for the writing of his book on the history of the Sparrows Point Plant, plus original

documents from his tenure in the Corporate Planning Department. * Robert W. Pemberton papers, 1918-1999. 3.00 linear feet, at the

University of Maryland Libraries The University of Maryland Libraries is the largest university library in the Washington, D.C. - Baltimore area. The university's library system includes eight libraries: six are located on the College Park campus, while the Severn Library, an o ...

, State of Maryland and Historical Collections. Working files of a National Vice President and Secretary-Treasurer of

Industrial Union of Marine and Shipbuilding Workers of America The Industrial Union of Marine and Shipbuilding Workers of America (IUMSWA) was an American labor union which existed between 1933 and 1988. The IUMSWA was first organised at the New York Shipbuilding Corporation shipyard in Camden, New Jersey a ...

who was associated with the Sparrows Point and Key Highway shipyards in

Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic, and the 30th most populous city in the United States with a population of 585,708 in 2020. Baltimore was ...

. Defunct shipbuilding companies of the United States Bethlehem shipyards Shipyards of the United States Bethlehem Steel Industrial buildings and structures in Maryland Defunct manufacturing companies based in Maryland