Portion of Northwestern Steel & Wire Mill Purchased

Leggett & Platt Inc., Carthage, Mo., has acquired a portion of the idled Northwestern Steel & Wire mill in Sterling, Ill. Before it declared bankruptcy in 2000 and was shuttered in 2001, the Sterling mill was a major consumer of scrap iron and steel, with electric arc furnaces melting up to 1.2 million tons per year of scrap.

Comments in a news release accompanying the company’s second quarter earnings statement note that Leggett & Platt has purchased “selected assets used in the production of steel rod.” Leggett & Platt anticipates that the portion of the mill that it will be operating will start production in 2003.

According to the company, the Sterling mill will produce wire in its raw form that will ultimately be finished at the company’s seven wire-drawing mills. “It will help ensure a reliable, consistent, high quality source for about half of the steel rod consumed in the company's wire mills,” the news release states.

Through its L&P Wire Group and other divisions, the company produces more than 800,000 tons of steel wire annually, according to its Web site. Some of the wire is used as wire tie for balers in recycling applications.

According to a report from Industrial Information Resources, Houston, Leggett & Platt picked up about 145 acres of the 700-acre Sterling facility—including the melt shop, caster, and rod mill—for an auction price of $4.4 million.

The new Leggett & Platt venture will be known as Sterling Steel Company LLC. Leggett & Platt will reportedly spend about $25 million to refurbish the rod mill, equipment and associated buildings.

Also in the first half of 2002, Leggett & Platt acquired the Andrews, S.C. industrial wire operations of Insteel Industries Inc., Mt. Airy, N.C. That facility is expected to add approximately $35 million to annual sales and will further strengthen Leggett & Platt’s position as a leading producer of drawn steel wire, according to the company’s Web site.