Alton Steel is a

steel Steel is an alloy made up of iron with added carbon to improve its strength and fracture resistance compared to other forms of iron. Many other elements may be present or added. Stainless steels that are corrosion- and oxidation-resistant ty ...

manufacturer, based in Alton, Illinois, United States. The company is a reincarnation of the Laclede Steel Company, which halted operations of its mill in 1998. The company entered

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 debtor ...

in 2001, but emerged in 2003 with the new name and new owners. The reborn company employs over 260 hourly and 100 salaried workers in the area.

History

Laclede Steel was incorporated in 1911 by Thomas Russell Akin who was succeeded by William Markham Akin who in turn was succeeded by Paul B. Akin (Paul's son Congressman and 2012 Republican Senate nominee Todd Akin was a manager of the company but did not become chairman). It owned two electric-arc furnaces, and owned mills in Alton, Illinois, Fairless Hills, Pennsylvania,

Vandalia, Illinois Vandalia is a city in and the county seat of Fayette County, Illinois, United States. At the 2020 Census, the population was 7,458. Vandalia is northeast of St. Louis, on the Kaskaskia River. It served as the state capital of Illinois from 1 ...

and Benwood, West Virginia. Its products included strip, hot rolled bars, wire, pipe, structural tubing and plate. Laclede was one of the companies contracted by the

Port Authority of New York and New Jersey The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, PANYNJ; stylized, in logo since 2020, as Port Authority NY NJ, is a joint venture between the U.S. states of New York and New Jersey, established in 1921 through an interstate compact authorized ...

to supply steel for

construction Construction is a general term meaning the art and science to form objects, systems, or organizations,"Construction" def. 1.a. 1.b. and 1.c. ''Oxford English Dictionary'' Second Edition on CD-ROM (v. 4.0) Oxford University Press 2009 and com ...

of the

World Trade Center World Trade Centers are sites recognized by the World Trade Centers Association. World Trade Center may refer to: Buildings * List of World Trade Centers * World Trade Center (2001–present), a building complex that includes five skyscrapers, a ...

in 1967. As a cost-saving measure, the Port Authority chose to use many different, smaller steel suppliers such as Laclede, bidding on smaller portions of steel, rather than buying larger amounts from a single source such as

Bethlehem Steel The Bethlehem Steel Corporation was an American steelmaking company headquartered in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. For most of the 20th century, it was one of the world's largest steel producing and shipbuilding companies. At the height of its succe ...

U.S. Steel United States Steel Corporation, more commonly known as U.S. Steel, is an American integrated steel producer headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with production operations primarily in the United States of America and in severa ...

. Working in the steel mill was featured in an episode of Dirty Jobs. In August 2019, Alton Steel employees took possession of the company through an employee stock ownership plan.

References

*{{cite web, url=http://www.steelnews.com/companies/producers/laclede_archive.htm , title=Laclede Steel Background , accessdate=2007-05-17 , publisher=SteelNews.com , url-status=dead , archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20060318111634/http://www.steelnews.com/companies/producers/laclede_archive.htm , archivedate=March 18, 2006

External links

Alton Steel
(official site) Alton, Illinois Companies based in Madison County, Illinois