Trainload of steel comes to Sparrows Point from Ohio
A trickle compared to the amount Sparrows Point could produce if it were running at full tilt.
Above: A train with banded coils of steel heads for Sparrows Point yesterday.
Since 1891, Sparrows Point has been shipping steel to the far corners of the U.S. and often the world.
Now, with its furnaces idled and steel-side employees given WARN layoff notices notices by parent company Severstal, the mill is getting its steel from Ohio and, probably soon, from Mississippi.
That steel – a trickle of the amount Sparrows Point can itself produce at full tilt – comes by train from Severstal’s Warren, Ohio, mill, sources told The Brew.
Yesterday we spotted the Warren train at Bay View rail yard in East Baltimore. With about 50 cars carrying what’s known as hot band coils, the train was waiting for a crew to go the last few miles of its 435-mile journey from the Midwest.
Sparrows Point has been receiving steel from Warren and, to a limited degree, from Severstal’s Dearborn, Mich., plant ever since the company’s attempt to import steel slabs from Russia backfired.
After The Brew revealed the existence of the Russian imports last June, the United Steelworkers Union (USW) filed a formal protest and several customers complained that the metal was not made in America, as required under many federal and state procurement laws.
Hot Band May Come from Non-Union Mill
Sparrows Point is now receiving about 40,000 tons of hot bands a month from Warren, according to the industry newletter Steel Market Update.
About 25,000-30,000 tons are reportedly used to make tinplate for the canning industry, while the remainder is allocated for other flat-rolled products, such as coated and cold-rolled steel, for a limited number of customers.
The Sparrows Point mill is rated to make 3.5 million tons of steel a year – and can roll 250,000 tons of hot-band coil per month. That’s over six times the amount of steel now coming from Warren.
Two of the 50 or so cars carrying banded steel yesterday. (Photo by Mark Reutter)
Because Warren has been caught short and not supplied enough steel to the Baltimore mill, Severstal plans to supply an additional 10,000 tons of hot bands a month from its non-union plant at Columbus, Miss.
The company is currently discussing the plan with the USW to avoid another formal protest or possible job action. (The Warren mill is also a USW shop. Both Sparrows and Warren are now operating on an expired labor agreement extended day-by-day.)
Production has been expanding rapidly at the Columbus plant. Despite grumbles from union officials, it is widely expected that the USW will agree to accept the Columbus hot bands in the name of preserving jobs at the Point.
The union has been holding out the hope that Severstal will sell the Baltimore plant and new ownership will restore full operations.
Mark Reutter is the author of Making Steel – Sparrows Point, the definitive history of this steel mill. He can be reached at reuttermark@yahoo.com.