Steel Mills

ArcelorMittal Cleveland Works Positioned as AHSS Producer

September 22, 2013

ArcelorMittal plans to invest $25 million in improvements in its hot-dip galvanizing line at Cleveland Works bringing its total investment over the past ten years to more than $95 million. Louis Schorsch, of the company’s group management board, told attendees at a City Club Business Leaders event last week that Cleveland Works will be a key producer of new, advanced high-strength steel for the automotive industry.

ArcelorMittal investments included converting a heat-treating line to a galvanizing line that is critical to producing advanced high strength steel said Schorsch.

Earlier this month the plant shut down a blast furnace to reline the brick interior–a $55 million update that will increase blast furnace capacity by 500 to 600 tons a day. The furnace is expected to be out of commission for about two months.

Schorsch said ArcelorMittal is looking for ways to meet the challenge of fuel economy requirements and carbon dioxide emission regulations. More than 400 of its 1300-1500 research and development employees are specifically working on new products that address that challenge.

In comments to Crains Cleveland Business, Schorsch expressed confidence in the U.S. steel industry and expects steel consumption to rise out of recession levels next year.

ArcelorMittal’s Cleveland Works has a convoluted history spanning over 100 years that started in the early 1900s with Corrigan McKinney Steel Company on the East Side of the Cuyahoga River and Otis Steel on the West Side.

Over the years Otis was acquired by Jones and Laughlin Steel Corp. Corrigan-McKinney was acquired by Republic Steel that went on to become the country’s third largest steelmaker following World War II. LTV Corporation purchased Jones and Laughlin in 1968 and then Republic Steel in 1984, creating LTV Steel and the second largest steel maker in the U.S. After two Chapter 11 bankruptcy filings, LTV ceased operations in 2001 and sold its Cleveland and Chicago companies to International Steel Group, Inc. (ISG). In 2004, ISG merged with Ipsat International to create Mittal Steel.

Today ArcelorMittal Cleveland Works is responsible for 3 percent of ArcelorMittal’s 100 million tons of shipments annually. The plant has approximately 1850 hourly and salaried employees and the highest productivity in North America according to Schorsch. Cleveland Works has two blast furnaces and produces hot-rolled, cold-rolled and hot-dipped galvanized sheet and semi-finished slabs with a production capacity of 3.8 million tons annually.