Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel was a steel manufacturer based in Wheeling, West Virginia, which is located at the edge of the Pittsburgh metropolitan area. In December 1968, Pittsburgh Steel Company was merged into Wheeling Steel Corporation to form the Wheeling-Pitt. As of January 1, 2009, Wheeling-Pitt is part of Severstal, a Russian steel manufacturing conglomerate.[1]
The company has six major manufacturing centers in Eastern Ohio, the Northern Panhandle of West Virginia and Western Pennsylvania. Due to the downfall of the American steel industry, Wheeling-Pittsburgh is a shell of its former self. While Pittsburgh-based U.S. Steel has kept itself profitable by diversifying and moving the majority of its manufacturing plants to the South or overseas (but keeping headquarters and a few plants in Pittsburgh), Wheeling-Pittsburgh has kept all of its main operations in the former Steel Belt. This has led the company to post losses for many years, including in 2000, when they filed for bankruptcy protection.
While the company operates only a limited number of plants, the corporation is able to turn out a high number of products due to efficiency. Each of Wheeling-Pittsburgh's six plants turns out a different type of product. Raw steel, which can be manufactured in a variety of thicknesses, and may be rolled or coiled, is created in Steubenville, Ohio. In Yorkville, Ohio, the company produces tin products, specifically coatings. Galvanized steel, marketed under the SofTite name, is produced at a Martins Ferry, Ohio plant. Located near the main headquarters in Wheeling is a plant that specializes in steel for bridge and highway construction. Sheet steel is produced in an Allenport, Pennsylvania plant, while the company gathers the coke that is required for steel production at a Follansbee, West Virginia plant.
Esmark, Inc. engaged in a successful proxy takeover battle for Wheeling-Pitt in 2005 and formally took over the steelmaker in November 2007.In August 2008, Severstal acquired Esmark's Wheeling-Pitt steel holdings for $1.25 billion.
Wheeling-Pittsburgh Corporation (WPC) operates as the seventh-largest integrated steel concern in the United States. The firm's subsidiaries, most notably Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel Corporation, produce flat rolled, semi-finished, and hot-rolled steel products for a variety of industries. Labor strikes and deteriorating industry conditions forced WPC to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 1985 and again in 2000. WPC--a subsidiary of WHX Corporation since 1994--filed a plan of reorganization with the United States Bankruptcy Court in 2003. When fully implemented, WPC will emerge as an independent company.
Since 1890, when the company was founded by Alexander Glass, Wheeling Corrugating has grown to 14 facilities nationally. Much of the reason for the company’s success centers on the same principles practiced by Glass, principles that are etched in steel and have stood the test of time:
Create a team of highly competent, energetic people who are committed to the customer;
Build a strong business around quality products and service;
Broaden the product line to meet the evolving needs of the marketplace;
Improve and upgrade through investments in people and equipment;
Grow through careful acquisition.
Today, these principles, backed by that team of talented and dedicated men and women, have kept Wheeling Corrugating a true American industrial success story.
Manufacturing
Wheeling Corrugating controls every aspect of the products’ manufacture, from the making of the steel to the final product.
Production
Since Wheeling Corrugating is connected to Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel, it can ensure its products are made to exact specifications. Wheeling Corrugating uses both galvanized and full-hard cold rolled steel. But, the vast majority of its products are made from galvanized steel produced at Wheeling-Pittsburgh’s Martins Ferry, Ohio, Plant.
Processing
The galvanizing process ensures applying a precisely controlled zinc coating to the steel for corrosion resistance. It’s this protection that makes Wheeling Corrugating’s products so long-lasting. Once Wheeling Corrugating receives the steel, its facilities take over the process.
Locations
Wheeling Corrugating's 14 plants are strategically located throughout the country. This ensures that you will receive personalized customer service and quick delivery to the job site.
Visions For Our Future
The basic framework for success developed by Alexander Glass back in 1890 moved Wheeling Corrugating from the 19th into the 21th century. While honoring those principles, Wheeling Corrugating is moving forward with new products, new plants and new ways of doing business. Perfectly balanced between our roots and tomorrow, we have the talent, the facilities, the technology and the tenacity to overcome the challenges of this new century.
As LaBow set his sights on bolstering his holdings through acquisition, union workers once again became disgruntled with their contract. In 1996, the United Steel Workers of America (USWA) and Wheeling-Pittsburgh failed to reach a labor agreement, prompting a worker strike at eight of the firm's plants in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia. At the heart of the debate was the union's demand for a new pension plan for over 4,500 workers. Union workers claimed that WPC could easily afford this pension plan since its financial position had been greatly strengthened over the past several years. A new five-year agreement was reached in August 1997 and called for not only a new pension plan but also a retirement enhancement program and hourly wage increases. In turn, WPC demanded 850 job cuts.
By the late 1990s, Wheeling-Pittsburgh was once again battling rising imports and deteriorating prices. In 1998, the firm filed suit against 15 Japanese and Russian steel manufacturing and trading companies, claiming they were illegally selling hot-rolled steel to its customers in Ohio below the cost of production. Foreign imports and overcapacity continued to plague the company for the next several years, eroding WPC's financial position. In November 2000, WPC and its subsidiaries filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy for the second time in its history.
James Bradley--Wheeling-Pittsburgh's CEO--commented on the move in a company statement, claiming that the filing occurred "at a time when the company and its employees should be benefiting from hard-won productivity and quality improvements. Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel has improved its quality and customer satisfaction levels even as it has lowered costs in the face of rising energy prices. ... However, these gains were not enough to counter the marked deterioration of pricing caused by the current surge in illegally-priced foreign steel imports. The cumulative effect of unrestrained illegal steel imports that has occurred since 1998 has caused irreparable harm to the domestic steel industry and is the root cause of our Chapter 11 filing." During 2001, Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel posted a loss of $172.2 million. A net loss of $54.3 million was reported the following year.
WPC began formulating a new business strategy that would change the company's operating structure, allowing it to compete more effectively amid harsh industry conditions. WPC's reorganization plan was accepted by the United States Bankruptcy Court in August 2003. At the same time, the company reached a new five-year labor agreement with its union workers. Upon completion of the reorganization, WPC would sever its ties with WHX and emerge as an independent company. Wheeling-Pittsburgh had proven its ability to overcome the perils of bankruptcy in the past, leaving its management team confident that the company would remain among the top ten integrated steel manufacturers in the United States for years to come.
Principal Subsidiaries: Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel Corporation; Wheeling Corrugating Company; Wheeling-Nisshin Inc.; Ohio Coatings Company.
Principal Competitors: Nucor Corporation; Gallatin Steel Company; GalvTech LP; Winner Steel Inc.; Rouge Steel Company; United States Steel Corporation; Weirton Steel Corporation; International Steel Group Inc.; AK Steel Corporation; WCI Steel, Inc.
Facing this financial impasse, Wheeling looked to pull itself out of the crisis by merging with Pittsburgh Steel Company on December 5, 1968. Pittsburgh Steel, then the 16th largest steel producer, was interested in combining forces with a larger company. Founded in 1901 with facilities along the Monongahela River some 30 miles southeast of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh Steel was at that point a small independent steelmaker with a limited product mix. During 1966 and 1967, it had produced about 2.1 million tons of raw steel a year and shipped a little less than 1.6 million tons of finished steel products. Combining forces with Wheeling would create a new company representing the ninth-largest steelmaker, with a finished capacity of more than three million tons. Meanwhile, Pittsburgh Steel had closed 1967 with a profit of $2.2 million after finishing the previous year with a loss of close to $2.0 million.
The merger made Wheeling a stronger competitor with upgraded facilities and a more balanced product line. Wheeling's product mix was heavily based on flat-rolled products while Pittsburgh leaned towards metal-coated sheet specialty items. There were many obvious advantages to the partnership. Still, industry analysts realistically noted that both parties brought shaky economic prospects to this corporate union.
The new company began on an upbeat note. Sales volume for the two companies doubled from $505 million in 1968 to over $1 billion in 1974. However, capital expenditures continued to rise as Wheeling-Pittsburgh undertook a massive program to maintain and modernize existing operations from the processing of raw materials through to the production of finished products. There was also a new added expense: the increasingly formidable cost of installing new technology for environmental quality control. In 1974 and 1975, capital expenditures reached $115 million, more than double the outlay during the previous five year period.
Statistics:
Wholly Owned Subsidiary of WHX Corporation
Incorporated: 1920 as Wheeling Steel Corporation
Employees: 3,513
Sales: $980 million (2002)
NAIC: 324199 All Other Petroleum and Coal Products Manufacturing; 331221 Rolled Steel Shape Manufacturing; 331110 Iron and Steel Mills
Key Dates:
1901: Alexander Glass establishes the Wheeling Corrugated Company.
1902: Wheeling Corrugated becomes a subsidiary of Wheeling Steel and Iron Company.
1920: Wheeling Steel Corp. is created by the combination of LaBelle Iron Works, Whitaker-Glessner Company, and Wheeling Steel and Iron.
1968: Wheeling merges with Pittsburgh Steel Company.
1978: Dennis J. Carney is named chairman.
1985: Wheeling-Pittsburgh files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy; 8,500 steelworkers go on strike.
1991: The firm emerges from bankruptcy.
1994: The company adopts a new holding company structure; Wheeling-Pittsburgh becomes a subsidiary of WHX Corp.
2000: Deteriorating industry conditions force the company into bankruptcy for the second time.
2003: The United States Bankruptcy Court accepts Wheeling-Pittsburgh's reorganization plan.
Address:
1134 Market Street
Wheeling, Virginia 26003
U.S.A.
The company has six major manufacturing centers in Eastern Ohio, the Northern Panhandle of West Virginia and Western Pennsylvania. Due to the downfall of the American steel industry, Wheeling-Pittsburgh is a shell of its former self. While Pittsburgh-based U.S. Steel has kept itself profitable by diversifying and moving the majority of its manufacturing plants to the South or overseas (but keeping headquarters and a few plants in Pittsburgh), Wheeling-Pittsburgh has kept all of its main operations in the former Steel Belt. This has led the company to post losses for many years, including in 2000, when they filed for bankruptcy protection.
While the company operates only a limited number of plants, the corporation is able to turn out a high number of products due to efficiency. Each of Wheeling-Pittsburgh's six plants turns out a different type of product. Raw steel, which can be manufactured in a variety of thicknesses, and may be rolled or coiled, is created in Steubenville, Ohio. In Yorkville, Ohio, the company produces tin products, specifically coatings. Galvanized steel, marketed under the SofTite name, is produced at a Martins Ferry, Ohio plant. Located near the main headquarters in Wheeling is a plant that specializes in steel for bridge and highway construction. Sheet steel is produced in an Allenport, Pennsylvania plant, while the company gathers the coke that is required for steel production at a Follansbee, West Virginia plant.
Esmark, Inc. engaged in a successful proxy takeover battle for Wheeling-Pitt in 2005 and formally took over the steelmaker in November 2007.In August 2008, Severstal acquired Esmark's Wheeling-Pitt steel holdings for $1.25 billion.
Wheeling-Pittsburgh Corporation (WPC) operates as the seventh-largest integrated steel concern in the United States. The firm's subsidiaries, most notably Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel Corporation, produce flat rolled, semi-finished, and hot-rolled steel products for a variety of industries. Labor strikes and deteriorating industry conditions forced WPC to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 1985 and again in 2000. WPC--a subsidiary of WHX Corporation since 1994--filed a plan of reorganization with the United States Bankruptcy Court in 2003. When fully implemented, WPC will emerge as an independent company.
Since 1890, when the company was founded by Alexander Glass, Wheeling Corrugating has grown to 14 facilities nationally. Much of the reason for the company’s success centers on the same principles practiced by Glass, principles that are etched in steel and have stood the test of time:
Create a team of highly competent, energetic people who are committed to the customer;
Build a strong business around quality products and service;
Broaden the product line to meet the evolving needs of the marketplace;
Improve and upgrade through investments in people and equipment;
Grow through careful acquisition.
Today, these principles, backed by that team of talented and dedicated men and women, have kept Wheeling Corrugating a true American industrial success story.
Manufacturing
Wheeling Corrugating controls every aspect of the products’ manufacture, from the making of the steel to the final product.
Production
Since Wheeling Corrugating is connected to Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel, it can ensure its products are made to exact specifications. Wheeling Corrugating uses both galvanized and full-hard cold rolled steel. But, the vast majority of its products are made from galvanized steel produced at Wheeling-Pittsburgh’s Martins Ferry, Ohio, Plant.
Processing
The galvanizing process ensures applying a precisely controlled zinc coating to the steel for corrosion resistance. It’s this protection that makes Wheeling Corrugating’s products so long-lasting. Once Wheeling Corrugating receives the steel, its facilities take over the process.
Locations
Wheeling Corrugating's 14 plants are strategically located throughout the country. This ensures that you will receive personalized customer service and quick delivery to the job site.
Visions For Our Future
The basic framework for success developed by Alexander Glass back in 1890 moved Wheeling Corrugating from the 19th into the 21th century. While honoring those principles, Wheeling Corrugating is moving forward with new products, new plants and new ways of doing business. Perfectly balanced between our roots and tomorrow, we have the talent, the facilities, the technology and the tenacity to overcome the challenges of this new century.
As LaBow set his sights on bolstering his holdings through acquisition, union workers once again became disgruntled with their contract. In 1996, the United Steel Workers of America (USWA) and Wheeling-Pittsburgh failed to reach a labor agreement, prompting a worker strike at eight of the firm's plants in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia. At the heart of the debate was the union's demand for a new pension plan for over 4,500 workers. Union workers claimed that WPC could easily afford this pension plan since its financial position had been greatly strengthened over the past several years. A new five-year agreement was reached in August 1997 and called for not only a new pension plan but also a retirement enhancement program and hourly wage increases. In turn, WPC demanded 850 job cuts.
By the late 1990s, Wheeling-Pittsburgh was once again battling rising imports and deteriorating prices. In 1998, the firm filed suit against 15 Japanese and Russian steel manufacturing and trading companies, claiming they were illegally selling hot-rolled steel to its customers in Ohio below the cost of production. Foreign imports and overcapacity continued to plague the company for the next several years, eroding WPC's financial position. In November 2000, WPC and its subsidiaries filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy for the second time in its history.
James Bradley--Wheeling-Pittsburgh's CEO--commented on the move in a company statement, claiming that the filing occurred "at a time when the company and its employees should be benefiting from hard-won productivity and quality improvements. Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel has improved its quality and customer satisfaction levels even as it has lowered costs in the face of rising energy prices. ... However, these gains were not enough to counter the marked deterioration of pricing caused by the current surge in illegally-priced foreign steel imports. The cumulative effect of unrestrained illegal steel imports that has occurred since 1998 has caused irreparable harm to the domestic steel industry and is the root cause of our Chapter 11 filing." During 2001, Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel posted a loss of $172.2 million. A net loss of $54.3 million was reported the following year.
WPC began formulating a new business strategy that would change the company's operating structure, allowing it to compete more effectively amid harsh industry conditions. WPC's reorganization plan was accepted by the United States Bankruptcy Court in August 2003. At the same time, the company reached a new five-year labor agreement with its union workers. Upon completion of the reorganization, WPC would sever its ties with WHX and emerge as an independent company. Wheeling-Pittsburgh had proven its ability to overcome the perils of bankruptcy in the past, leaving its management team confident that the company would remain among the top ten integrated steel manufacturers in the United States for years to come.
Principal Subsidiaries: Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel Corporation; Wheeling Corrugating Company; Wheeling-Nisshin Inc.; Ohio Coatings Company.
Principal Competitors: Nucor Corporation; Gallatin Steel Company; GalvTech LP; Winner Steel Inc.; Rouge Steel Company; United States Steel Corporation; Weirton Steel Corporation; International Steel Group Inc.; AK Steel Corporation; WCI Steel, Inc.
Facing this financial impasse, Wheeling looked to pull itself out of the crisis by merging with Pittsburgh Steel Company on December 5, 1968. Pittsburgh Steel, then the 16th largest steel producer, was interested in combining forces with a larger company. Founded in 1901 with facilities along the Monongahela River some 30 miles southeast of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh Steel was at that point a small independent steelmaker with a limited product mix. During 1966 and 1967, it had produced about 2.1 million tons of raw steel a year and shipped a little less than 1.6 million tons of finished steel products. Combining forces with Wheeling would create a new company representing the ninth-largest steelmaker, with a finished capacity of more than three million tons. Meanwhile, Pittsburgh Steel had closed 1967 with a profit of $2.2 million after finishing the previous year with a loss of close to $2.0 million.
The merger made Wheeling a stronger competitor with upgraded facilities and a more balanced product line. Wheeling's product mix was heavily based on flat-rolled products while Pittsburgh leaned towards metal-coated sheet specialty items. There were many obvious advantages to the partnership. Still, industry analysts realistically noted that both parties brought shaky economic prospects to this corporate union.
The new company began on an upbeat note. Sales volume for the two companies doubled from $505 million in 1968 to over $1 billion in 1974. However, capital expenditures continued to rise as Wheeling-Pittsburgh undertook a massive program to maintain and modernize existing operations from the processing of raw materials through to the production of finished products. There was also a new added expense: the increasingly formidable cost of installing new technology for environmental quality control. In 1974 and 1975, capital expenditures reached $115 million, more than double the outlay during the previous five year period.
Statistics:
Wholly Owned Subsidiary of WHX Corporation
Incorporated: 1920 as Wheeling Steel Corporation
Employees: 3,513
Sales: $980 million (2002)
NAIC: 324199 All Other Petroleum and Coal Products Manufacturing; 331221 Rolled Steel Shape Manufacturing; 331110 Iron and Steel Mills
Key Dates:
1901: Alexander Glass establishes the Wheeling Corrugated Company.
1902: Wheeling Corrugated becomes a subsidiary of Wheeling Steel and Iron Company.
1920: Wheeling Steel Corp. is created by the combination of LaBelle Iron Works, Whitaker-Glessner Company, and Wheeling Steel and Iron.
1968: Wheeling merges with Pittsburgh Steel Company.
1978: Dennis J. Carney is named chairman.
1985: Wheeling-Pittsburgh files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy; 8,500 steelworkers go on strike.
1991: The firm emerges from bankruptcy.
1994: The company adopts a new holding company structure; Wheeling-Pittsburgh becomes a subsidiary of WHX Corp.
2000: Deteriorating industry conditions force the company into bankruptcy for the second time.
2003: The United States Bankruptcy Court accepts Wheeling-Pittsburgh's reorganization plan.
Address:
1134 Market Street
Wheeling, Virginia 26003
U.S.A.