Sparrows Point Steel Mill to be Razed

The remaining assets of the former RG Steel Mill in Sparrows Point, Md., have been sold to Nucor Corp., Charlotte, which reportedly plans to dismantle the equipment at Sparrows Point for use at other mills. The decision to raze the mill ends more than 100 years of steelmaking at the location, which at its peak in the 1950s as a Bethlehem Steel mill employed some 30,000 people.

According to a news item in the Baltimore Sun, “Hilco Trading, one of the two companies that bought Sparrows Point for $72.5 million in an August [2012] bankruptcy auction, sold the plant’s most valuable steelmaking asset to Nucor, a Charlotte, N.C.-based steelmaker, reportedly for spare parts.”

In a statement following the announced decision to raze the Sparrows Point facility, Kevin Kamenetz, Baltimore County executive, said, “Today we face the difficult reality that more than a century of steelmaking as we know it has come to an end in Baltimore County. We all have fought hard to prevent this day. The entire community feels the emotional and financial impact, whether you are a former RG Steel or Bethlehem Steel worker, a retiree living in Turner Station or a business owner in Dundalk.”