National Steel Corporation

The National Steel Corporation (1929–2003) was a major American steel producer. It was founded on October 1, 1929[1] through a merger arranged by Weirton Steel with the new Great Lakes Steel Corporation, which was then in the process of construction of its Ecorse steel works, certain subsidiaries of M. A. Hanna Company, namely the four blast furnaces in Buffalo and two on Zug Island, the company's iron mining division and its fleet of ore carriers; and the Michigan Steel Corp, predecessor to Great Lakes Steel, which joined the group in 1931 before the adjoining plant of the Great Lakes Steel Corp was formally commissioned.

National Steel was headquartered in Pittsburgh. Despite a difficult market in Depression-setting 1930, the company reported USD 8.4 million in profits. Again, in 1931 the company was profitable unlike many other competitors. The company could attribute its success primarily to sales to the automobile industry. Large steel producing operations were located near Detroit, providing the company with low shipping costs. Throughout the Great Depression, National Steel obtained profitability every year.

The company was part of the Dow Jones Industrial Average from 1935 until 1959.

National Steel Company (1899)

The National Steel Company of 1899 (a U.S. Steel predecessor) had no relationship with the National Steel Corporation of 1929 other than the name.

Incorporated in New Jersey on February 27, 1899, had a capital stock of $27 million par $100 7% preferred ($26 million outstanding) and $32 million par $100 common (all outstanding).[2] The remaining $1,000,000 of preferred stock were issued on April 28, 1899 to the Oliver & Snyder Steel Co. in exchange for the entire $100,000 stock of the Rosena Furnace Co. and associated properties.

All of the companies acquired produced basic Bessemer steel with the exception of the Buhl Steel Co. who produced basic open hearth steel, but also had to buy ingots on the market to cover their own needs.

The United States Steel Corporation was incorporated on February 25, 1901. It offered a premium of $125 of its new 7% preferred stock for each $100 par value of National Steel preferred stock and a similar $125 premium for each $100 par of National common stock.

Detroit Iron & Steel Company

The Detroit Iron & Steel Company was a predecessor to Great Lakes Steel Corporation and in 1902 built a greenfield blast furnace plant on Zug Island, the first modern blast furnace plant in the state of Michigan.

The company was incorporated in Michigan on April 24, 1902, and issued 75,000 par $10 7% preferred and 75,000 par $10 common shares (split 2-for-1 on July 16, 1917). Issued $400,000 5% 10-year bonds dated May 2, 1904, due $40,000 annually from 1907 to 1916.[30] Retired those bonds and broke even on cumulative preferred dividends in 1907.[31][32][33] Issued $600,000 15-year 5% bonds dated July 1, 1909 (at construction of second blast furnace), due annually $40,000 till July 1, 1925. Paid 4% per year dividend on common stock until 1917, then 2.5% quarterly (10% annual - 20% when considering the stock split!) and also paid a few extra dividends. The joint venture included: The furnace had a capacity of 300 tons of foundry iron per day, 30 additional coke ovens were built concurrently and there were plans to eventually have 180 ovens.[46]

Hanna Furnace Company

Only three of the companies (names in bold) were relevant to the National Steel Corporation, the others were effectively dissolved before, their plants apparently having become technologically obsolete and no longer economically viable or no longer worthy of needed investment. Although in the case of the Buffalo Union Furnace Co. the company survived, but not its original plant.

Producers Steamship Company

Incorporated July 8, 1916 in Ohio.

Michigan Steel Corp

Michigan Steel Corp produced sheet steel for the automobile industry. It was effectively the first finishing department of the later Great Lakes Steel Corp steel works and was apparently quite successful as an independent company from 1923 till 1931.

The company issued $500,000 in 15-year 6.75% bonds dated May 1, 1923, as collateral a sheet steel plant of 36,000 tons per year capacity valued at ca. $1 million.[276] Incorporated in New Jersey on September 23, 1922[277] with George Rupert Fink president, the Ecorse, Michigan sheet mill plant on 40 acres (42.2369°N, -83.1536°W[279]) and built since December 1922,[280] began production on July 5, 1923, first and foremost as a supplier of the automobile industry. The capacity of the plant more than doubled between 1923 and 1928 (to 180,000 tons[277]). The company issued $1,250,000 10-year 6% bonds dated November 1, 1928, to redeem all remaining $239,500 of the 1923 bonds, for plant additions and

Great Lakes Steel Corp

Incorporated on February 23, 1929.

Large amounts of sand had to be brought to the 275 acres of marshland in Ecorse, Michigan, to raise it sufficiently above water level.

National Steel Corp

The National Steel Corp. (NSC) was a holding company, incorporated in Delaware on November 7, 1929.[305] It had an authorized capital of 3,000,000 shares and 2,080,000 were issued in exchange for:

National Steel thus became the 6th largest steel company of the United States with a capacity for 3,500,000 tons of iron ore, 1,750,000 tons of pig iron and 2,000,000 tons of steel ingots.[308]

In January 1931 NSC purchased all assets and assumed all liabilities of the Michigan Steel Corp (dissolved January 15, 1931) in exchange for cash and securities in the neighborhood of $12 million.

The entire outstanding share capital of these companies was owned by NSC:

NSC raised capital with $40 million 25-year 5% bonds dated April 1, 1931.[320] The debt was refinanced in 1935 and 1939 at successively lower interest rates while the maturity date (1965) remained unchanged.

On August 5, 1931, NSC completed its $36.5 million expansion program, among which was the $29 million steel plant of the Great Lakes Steel Corporation.

Post war years

The post-World War II years brought about record profits for the company as steel was in high demand. The company continued to post healthy profits in the 1970s, although the latter half of the decade saw some sharp and turbulent profit slumps. The increasing consumption of imported steel was often an attributed problem. It acquired United Financial Corporation, in 1979, adding another sundry item for its portfolio. United Financial was the parent company of Citizens Savings & Loan Association of San Francisco, which was the seventh‐largest savings and loan in the United States.[366]

1980s

Beginning in 1980, the company reported a serious loss of demand and with it profits in its core steel business. A roller coaster earnings surge the next year crashed down the year after that due to a further increase in imports and low demand.[367] In 1983, shareholders agreed to create National Intergroup, a holding company, and merge the steel business as one many units into it. The corporate reorganization was a further step to an already initiated arrangement that started in 1982, which broke the company into six independently managed units. The move was intended to better administer the company which had become diversified away from steel into aluminum and financial services. That same year, the workers of the Weirton mill purchased their operation from National Steel, forming an independent employee-owned corporation.[368]

In February 1984, Nippon Kokan K.K., a major Japanese steel producer, acquired 50% of National Steel from National Intergroup for US$292 million. Later in 1990, the Japanese firm would claim another 20% share from National Intergroup, which was eager to sell the steel business.[369] The company stumbled through troubled years as it shed thousands of workers and faced bankruptcy in 1991.

1990s

The company announced in 1991 that it would re-locate its longtime Pittsburgh headquarters to the South Bend, Indiana, area.[375]

In 1994, the company caused a stir in the industry when it terminated nearly all of its vice presidents, President and CFO, and replaced them by hiring nearly the complete executive staff of the U.S. Steel Gary Works, including V. John Goodwin who was named the new President of National Steel.[376] U.S. Steel was incensed and filed a lawsuit which the two companies settled out-of-court in 1995.[377] However these drastic leadership changes were short-lived, as Goodwin resigned in 1996, the result of a bitter dispute with the Japanese ownership and by 1998 nearly all of the U.S. Steel expatriates had departed from National.[378]

2000s

In 2000, when an internal auditor, tipped off by an informer, discovered that longtime executive James Squires was receiving millions of dollars in kickbacks from scrap suppliers. In August 2001, Squires was convicted in Federal Court of receiving kickbacks, and in 2002 was sentenced to two years imprisonment. Later he was forced to pay National approximately $3,000,000 in a civil lawsuit.[379][380]

The company filed for bankruptcy protection in 2002, the result of a deep depression in the industry.

Bankruptcy

The company would never again enjoy extended periods of profit and finally in March 2002, it filed for bankruptcy with only $2.3 billion in assets for $2.6 billion in debt. After a bidding war between AK Steel and U.S. Steel, in May 2003 the remains of National Steel were sold to U.S. Steel for $850 million and the assumption of $200 million in debt.[381] US Steel continues to operate National's Keewatin, Minnesota mining operation and pellet plant under the new name of Keewatin Taconite or Keetac.

External links

• National Steel webpage (archive) - A July 24, 2004 Internet Archive cache of the site which no longer remains