Although neither company involved will comment on it, a news report is claiming International Steel Group (ISG), Richfield, Ohio, is considering buying the assets of Weirton Steel Corp.
In addition to potentially adding capacity by acquiring the bankrupt West Virginia steel company, ISG is also reportedly considering re-starting some production capacity in Cleveland that has been idle for more than a year, according to a report in the Cleveland Plain Dealer.
An ISG general manager quoted by the daily newspaper would not comment on the Weirton situation, but he did remark that a decision on restarting the idled Cleveland equipment (which formerly belonged to LTV Corp.) would be made during the first quarter of 2004. A full restart would then take several additional months.
The idled equipment includes a blast furnace, a basic oxygen furnace and a slab-making caster.A rolling mill formerly located on the site has been sold to a Chinese company that is disassembling it and shipping it to Asia.
According to the Plain Dealer report, ISG is considering re-starting the basic oxygen furnace and the caster. The molten iron would be produced in a blast furnace at a nearby ISG complex also in Cleveland. Slabs created at the re-started complex would then also be sent back to this other Cleveland complex to be rolled into coils.
Separately, ISG has reportedly been in talks with the lead labor union at Weirton Steel Corp. as recently as this past weekend regarding ISG’s exploration to purchase the bankrupt steel company.
Weirton is also an integrated steelmaker that produces steel tin-plate and other grades.