Weirton Steel Corporation was a steel production company founded by Ernest T. Weir in

West Virginia West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian, Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States.The Census Bureau and the Association of American Geographers classify West Virginia as part of the Southern United States while the Bur ...

in 1909. It was at one time one of the world's largest producers of

tin plate Tinplate consists of sheets of steel coated with a thin layer of tin to impede rusting. Before the advent of cheap milled steel, the backing metal was wrought iron. While once more widely used, the primary use of tinplate now is the manufacture ...

products.

History

Weirton Steel Corporation was an integrated

steel mill A steel mill or steelworks is an industrial plant for the manufacture of steel. It may be an integrated steel works carrying out all steps of steelmaking from smelting iron ore to rolled product, but may also be a plant where steel semi-finish ...

founded in 1909 by Ernest T. Weir. In 1905, Weir and his partner, James Phillips, bought a tin mill in

Clarksburg, West Virginia Clarksburg is a city in and the county seat of Harrison County, West Virginia, United States, in the north-central region of the state. The population of the city was 16,039 at the 2020 census. It is the principal city of the Clarksburg micro ...

. In 1909, they relocated to Hollidays Cove,

, and expanded the operation. The location was chosen due to the abundant water supply, much needed for steel production, and the convenient access to major steel markets. In 1929, Weir merged Weirton Steel with Detroit's Michigan Steel and Cleveland's

M. A. Hanna Company M. A. Hanna Company was an iron ore processing company located in Cleveland, Ohio, United States. Origin The origins of the M. A. Hanna Co. are with Daniel F. Rhodes. In the 1840s Rhodes had founded Rhodes & Company which mined coal in the Maho ...

to form

National Steel Corporation The National Steel Corporation (1929–2003) was a major American steel producer. It was founded in 1929 through a merger arranged by Weirton Steel with some properties of the Great Lakes Steel Corporation and M.A. Hanna Company with headquart ...

. National Steel became on the largest steel producers in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

, but by the end of the century, the company was experiencing financial difficulties. Weirton Steel became the largest

Employee Stock Ownership Plan Employee stock ownership, or employee share ownership, is where a company's employees own shares in that company (or in the parent company of a group of companies). US employees typically acquire shares through a share option plan. In the UK, Em ...

(ESOP) steel plant in the world when employees purchased stocks in the 1980s. After Weirton Steel filed for bankruptcy, with 3,000 employees,

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

-based

International Steel Group International Steel Group (ISG) was an American steel company, headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, which was established by the New York investment firm WL Ross & Co LLC to acquire the assets of bankrupt steel companies and combine them together i ...

(ISG) submitted a low offer of $237 million. On April 22, 2004, U.S. federal bankruptcy Judge L. Edward Friend II ruled that ISG could purchase Weirton Steel. By court order, the assets were then auctioned, with most being acquired by ISG, which formed a new division called ISG Weirton Steel. On April 5, 2005, ISG completed a merger with

Mittal Steel Mittal Steel Company N.V. was an Indian company and one of the world's largest steel producers by volume and turnover. After a merger in 2005, it is now part of ArcelorMittal. History Mittal Steel Company was formed as Ispat International in 19 ...

. In 2006, Mittal Steel completed a further merger with

Arcelor Arcelor S.A. was the world's largest steel producer in terms of turnover and the second largest in terms of steel output, with a turnover of €30.2 billion and shipments of 45 million metric tons of steel in 2004. The company was created in 2002 ...

, forming a new company known as

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 larg ...

. In December 2020, ArcelorMittal sold its U.S. holdings to Ohio-based

Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. Cleveland-Cliffs Inc., formerly Cliffs Natural Resources, is a Cleveland, Ohio-based company that specializes in the mining, beneficiation, and pelletizing of iron ore, as well as steelmaking, including stamping and tooling. It is the large ...

making it a subsidiary of the Cleveland-Cliffs organization.

Weirton Steel Works

Located in

Weirton, West Virginia Weirton () is a city in Brooke and Hancock counties in the U.S. state of West Virginia. Located primarily in Hancock County, the city lies in the northern portions of the state's Northern Panhandle region. As of the 2020 census, the city's pop ...

, the integrated steel mill had four blast furnaces (1919, 1926, 1941 and 1952), an open-hearth shop (1920) and a bessemer converter (1936). It was one of the world´s largest producers of tin plate products. A basic oxygen plant was constructed in 1965.

References

External links

The History of Weirton Steel Corporation
ArcelorMittal Manufacturing companies established in 1909 Steel companies of the United States 1909 establishments in West Virginia Manufacturing companies disestablished in 2004 2004 disestablishments in West Virginia {{US-manufacturing-company-stub

History

Weirton Steel Works

See also

References

External links