The Gary Works is a major
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-fini ...
in
Gary, Indiana
Gary is a city in Lake County, Indiana, United States. The city has been historically dominated by major industrial activity and is home to U.S. Steel's Gary Works, the largest steel mill complex in North America. Gary is located along th ...
, on the shore of
Lake Michigan
Lake Michigan is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is the second-largest of the Great Lakes by volume () and the third-largest by surface area (), after Lake Superior and Lake Huron. To the east, its basin is conjoined with that o ...
. For many years, the Gary Works was the world's largest steel mill, and it remains the largest integrated mill in North America. It is operated by the
United States Steel Corporation
United States Steel Corporation, more commonly known as U.S. Steel, is an American integrated steel producer headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with production operations primarily in the United States of America and in several countries ...
. By February 26, 2023, U.S. Steel will lay off 244 workers reducing from 2500 to 2256 Employees.
The Gary Works includes both steelmaking and finishing facilities as an integrated mill, and has an annual capacity of 8.2 million tons.
It contains:
* Four
blast furnace
A blast furnace is a type of metallurgical furnace used for smelting to produce industrial metals, generally pig iron, but also others such as lead or copper. ''Blast'' refers to the combustion air being "forced" or supplied above atmospheri ...
s
* Three top-blown
basic oxygen process (BOP) vessels
* Three bottom-blown BOP (Q-BOP) vessels
* Vacuum degasser
* Three ladle metallurgy facilities
* Four
continuous slab casters
* An 84" hot strip mill
* Hot-rolled temper mill
* Both 80" and 84" pickle lines
* A 52" six-stand and an 80" five-stand cold-reduction mills
* Electrolytic cleaning line
* Three batch
annealing facilities
* A 38" continuous annealing line
* An 80" one-stand, a 48" two-stand, and an 84" two-stand
temper mills
* A 48" two-stand double cold-reduction mill
* A 37" and a 46" electrolytic tinning lines
The Gary Works was under construction from 1906 to 1908, and the first shipment of
iron ore
Iron ores are rocks and minerals from which metallic iron can be economically extracted. The ores are usually rich in iron oxides and vary in color from dark grey, bright yellow, or deep purple to rusty red. The iron is usually found in the ...
was unloaded on June 23, 1908. About of sand were moved in the process of constructing the plant.
The Gary Works remains Gary's largest single employer and a key element of the city's tax base, but employment levels have fallen substantially since the mid-20th century; the plant and allied facilities employed over 30,000 people in the early 1970s, but only 6,000 in 1990, 5,000 in 2015, 2,500 in 2021, and 2,246 in 2023.
The plant is also a central part of the city's geography; its main entrance is at the northern end of
Broadway
Broadway may refer to:
Theatre
* Broadway Theatre (disambiguation)
* Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S.
** Broadway (Manhattan), the street
**Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...
, the city's main thoroughfare.
References
Further reading
*
*
External links
*{{Official website, https://www.ussteel.com/locations/gary-works
Economy of Gary, Indiana
Ironworks and steel mills in the United States
Industrial buildings and structures in Indiana
U.S. Steel