A new day at WCI

A new day at WCI

In the immediate wake of Black Monday, the September day in 1977 when Youngstown Sheet Tube Co. announced that it was closing the Campbell Works, a rumor spread that Japanese interests might buy the plant and keep it operating.

It was only a rumor, but it was also an indication that the Mahoning Valley had been shaken to its very foundation by the Sheet Tube re-entrenchment and other shutdowns that everyone knew were in the future. We had become a community willing to reach out for any helping hand it could find. And there were no hands out there.

Recently one of the few remaining remnants of an industry that once crowded the Mahoning River from Warren to the state line was bought by a Russian company, and the sale was hailed by company and union alike.

Colorful history

WCI Steel traces its roots back 95 years to the Trumbull Steel Co. and the Warren plant was operated by Republic Steel Corp. for nearly 50 years. It was the scene of a famous standoff during the Little Steel Strike of 1937. It had ownership changes and ups and downs in recent years, essentially reinventing itself as an integrated producer of custom steel products for niche markets. It employs about 1,300 people.

Its sale for $140 million will make it a part of OAO Severstal, an international metals and mining company with a listing on the Russian Trading System and the London Stock Exchange that was incorporated only 15 years ago. It is, however, Russia’s largest steelmaker and it has developed a reputation for acquiring and integrating high-quality assets in North America and Europe. Its annual revenue exceeds $15 billion.

The sale was announced with predictions that Severstal is prepared to invest millions of dollars at WCI’s Warren sites, including the 2011 relining of the Valley’s only remaining blast furnace.

WCI’s managers and workers can be proud of the fact that they saw the company through tough times, maintained its production, modernized its facilities. They carved out a market that made the company attractive to an international company with a track record for making steel and making money.