McLouth Steel Corporation

Industry	Steel
Founded	1934
Defunct	1996
Fate	Bankruptcy
Successor	Detroit Steel Company
Headquarters	Detroit, Michigan 1934-1981, Trenton, Michigan 1982-1996
Key people	Donald B. McLouth
Products	Low carbon and stainless strip steel

McLouth Steel is a former integrated steel company. The company was once the ninth-largest steelmaker in the United States.

The company was composed of three locations: the first in Detroit, Michigan, the second (and largest) in Trenton, Michigan, and the third in Gibraltar, Michigan. The Detroit and Trenton plants have been demolished, while the Gibraltar plant has been restarted by Ferrolux.

Detroit Complex

This complex was built in 1934 by Donald B. McLouth, a Detroit scrap dealer, as a small conversion mill on Livernois Avenue. General Motors desired additional options for steel, providing partial financing for this facility. In its later years, the plant was revamped to produce only stainless steel, eventually being purchased in 1981 by Jones and Laughlin Steel Company.

The Detroit mill initially consisted of a small reversing hot rolling strip mill with a slab heating furnace. The original hot strip mill was known as the "Coffee Grinder" from the sounds the mill would make. In 1938, the company brought online a single 4-high reversing cold reducing mill with ancillary facilities (annealing and finishing). Over the next few years, modifications were made to the equipment the company would gain capacity to roll 108,000 net tons of hot rolled products and 60,000 net tons of cold rolled products per year.

In 1947, McLouth Steel began rolling stainless steel. Two single-stand reversing cold reducing mills were installed with the related supplementary equipment. In 1954, $6,000,000 of the $100,000,000 expansion plan for the new Trenton plant was used to install two 4-high reversing cold rolling mills here. With this new addition to the Detroit plant, stainless steel production increased to 52,000 net tons per year.

The Detroit plant was a finishing facility for sheet and strip products only. Principal operating units were two 50-inch (1,300 mm)., 4-high cold reduction mills, a cold anneal and pickle line, a temper mill, two slitting lines(36in. and 24in.), and a coil polisher. The two 50in. reduction mills were essentially identical. Both were installed in 1953 by United and had a combined annual capacity of 120,000 tons. The cold anneal and pickle line were installed in 1975 by Production Machinery. The line consisted of an entry end washing section to remove rolling oils, an open air annealing furnace (where the strip was heated above 1,900 °F (1,040 °C)), and three acid pickling tanks followed by rinsing and drying units. Paper was interleaved between the coil wraps at the exit take up reel to avoid surface abrasion.

Coil product was usually shipped from the Detroit plant via truck. The Detroit plant was demolished in 2018.

Trenton Complex

A photograph showing the majority of the Trenton, MI plant.

In 1948, McLouth Steel started its $100 million expansion program by purchasing riverfront property in Trenton, Michigan, with General Motors providing a $25 million loan.^[1] Purchasing war surplus equipment from a Chicago mill (at bargain prices),^[2] the first major construction program started soon afterward. The site was laid out and four 60-ton electric arc furnaces were installed. Soaking pits, a blooming mill, a Steckel mill, a down-coiler and finishing equipment were installed. The first ingots were poured in 1949, and McLouth was soon established as a growing factor in the marketplace.

A few years later, in 1954, the Trenton plant was formally dedicated and McLouth Steel gained the ability to produce iron as an integrated steel mill. Number One blast furnace was constructed with a capacity of 1250 tons a day. The three original 60-ton basic oxygen furnace (BOF) vessels were installed and McLouth became the first plant in the United States to make steel via the basic oxygen process. Adding to the melt shop were two 200-ton electric arc furnaces. The reversing Steckel mill was replaced by a six stand continuous 60-inch (1,500 mm) hot strip rolling mill and a roughing stand was added to complement the blooming mill. More soaking pits were installed as well as a plant to supply the BOP with oxygen. Two pickle lines were added along with the slitters.

1958 saw another major expansion of the plant. A new blast furnace was constructed (Number 2), two 110-ton BOP vessels, and the related support equipment for the BOP and blast furnaces also had their capacity increased. Gas cleaning systems were installed for the melt shop. Two Rust slab reheat furnaces were installed to handle stainless steel, as well as the massive grinder and slab unpilers. The grinders, unpilers, and the pusher/bumper units for the two furnaces were supplied by Composite Forgings, Inc.

Between 1960 and 1964, one more 110-ton BOP vessel was added, bringing the 110-ton vessel count to three. McLouth became the first company to use computer controls on a hot strip mill on November 1, 1962. Significantly, the first "straight stick" slab caster was installed during this period. It was the first in the United States.

Profitable operations as well as market demand prompted a major commitment to build a continuous casting department in 1967 with the announcement of four curved mold continuous casting strands and six lines of three induction slab reheaters. Two additional 110-ton BOP vessels were also added to replace old and obsolete equipment (the 60-ton vessels). With these improvements to McLouth's steel making process, McLouth became the first steel mill to eventually produce 100% of its product by the continuous casting process, which added significantly to the efficiency of the operations and improved the quality of the finished product.

The plant was sold in 1996 to Detroit Steel Company. Up to the early 2000s, Detroit Steel primarily brought in outside steel, pickled it, and sold it. In the summer of 2009, after several failed start-up attempts, the Trenton complex had its electrical distribution infrastructure removed. In 2017, the facility entered foreclosure after owners failed to pay $3.7 million in back taxes.^[3] In 2018, MSC Land Co. purchased the land, entering into an agreement to demolish all buildings and to perform some remediation. In May 2019, the site was put on EPA's Superfund National Priorities List.^[4] Site demolition and remediation have since taken place, but the property's future remains unknown.

Gibraltar Complex

In 1954, McLouth announced the construction of a cold rolling facility in Gibraltar, Michigan, close to the Trenton Plant. This facility has a four stand continuous cold rolling strip mill, annealing furnaces, two skin pass finishing mills and other ancillary equipment for further processing of cold rolled steel coils.

The property the company acquired was once owned by the Gibraltar Steel Corporation. The total area was around 900 acres (3.6 km²) of land along the river bordering Trenton. Original plans called for five additional blast furnaces dependent upon the completion of the All American Channel, a proposed channel through parts of Gibraltar. Without the channel, ore and coal haulers could not bring in the required raw materials. McLouth failed to get the proper financing to construct another integrated mill, so plans were drawn up for a stand-alone cold rolling mill.

There was a major fire that destroyed most of the pickling tower in 1970.

The plant was operated under Detroit Cold Rolling (a subsidiary of Detroit Steel Company) from 1996 (after the McLouth sale) until it was later sold to Steel Rolling Holdings in 2006. The plant was restarted by SRH, and was later purchased by Ferrolux. Ferrolux has since invested heavily into the Gibraltar facility.

One of three original BOP furnaces from the plant

Legacy and achievements

Closing

McLouth Steel's 1996 demise can be attributed to a mixture of causes.

McLouth only produced flat-rolled steel, with 75% of its customers being automotive.^[1] Its attempts to diversify, including purchase of trucking/coke/ore companies, did not generate the revenue or savings projected. Multiple recessions, cheap overseas steel, and lessened steel use in cars and trucks also harmed the company.

McLouth was "top-heavy" with a ratio of 1 supervisor to every 4 workers, while the union desired 1 supervisor to every 15 workers.^[10] McLouth had an extremely generous wage package, something the union was cooperative about reducing in later years as the need to cut costs increased.

In the spirit of its old slogan, "Pioneers in Steel Technology", McLouth often led the way in implementation of new processes while other steelmakers capitalized on McLouth absorbing those costs. Competitors then optimized the process, outdoing McLouth's production and efficiency.^[6] Aging and incorrectly sized equipment paired with low employee morale and productivity in the 1980s and 1990s subsequently lowered the quality of steel, creating reputation problems.

These factors, in addition to the economic conditions of the era, helped bring about the closure of a small, innovative, integrated steel company.

References