National Steel Corporation
The National Steel Corporation was a major American steel producer. It was founded on October 1, 1929 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 blast furnaces in Buffalo and 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.
National Steel Company (1899)
The National Steel Company of 1899 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 and $32 million par $100 common.
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. Issued $400,000 5% 10-year bonds dated May 2, 1904, due $40,000 annually from 1907 to 1916. Retired those bonds and broke even on cumulative preferred dividends in 1907. Issued $600,000 15-year 5% bonds dated July 1, 1909, due annually $40,000 till July 1, 1925. Paid 4% per year dividend on common stock until 1917, then 2.5% quarterly and also paid a few extra dividends.
- President: Daniel R. Hanna
- Vice: C. C. Bolton
- Secretary and Treasurer: C. W. Baird
- General Manager: Frank B. Richards
- M. A. Hanna & Co
- Solvay Process Company
- Detroit capitalists
Riter-Conley had the contract for the furnace, Russell Wheel & Foundry for auxiliary structures. The furnace was 78x17.5ft and the 4 stoves were 83x20ft. There were 120 coke ovens in 1905. The furnace was located on the north-east corner of the island, it was blown in on February 15, 1904 and in 1911 rebuild as a modern thin-lined, water cooled furnace. The B furnace, directly adjoining to the east of A, was begun in early 1909 and blown in on July 21, 1910. Also on Vol 5 Sheet 79 of the 1910 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map.
On May 1, 1920 the company was kicked off the Detroit Stock Exchange for failure to disclose operational and financial information.
On November 1, 1920 Detroit Iron & Steel was among several companies that merged to form the Hanna Furnace Co.. Its two blast furnaces had a capacity of 685 tons per day.
The furnaces were relined: No. 1 in 1905, 1909,...
Pig Iron Industry in Michigan
There were only 3 coke-filled blast furnaces in total in the state of Michigan. The Wayne furnace of the Detroit Furnace Company was a small 62 feet high 75tpd hand filled coke furnace with pipe stoves more resembling a typical charcoal furnace. It had existed in one form or another since originally built in 1870. The Detroit Furnaces Co. when incorporated on April 1, 1906 with $150,000 in capital took it over as a charcoal furnace. The furnace went out of blast for the last time in the fall of 1919 and was dismantled to make room for a power plant of the Detroit City Gas Company.Michigan as the second largest producer of iron ore in the United States had however about a dozen charcoal furnaces in operation and ranked about 7th in pig iron production. Michigan pig iron production statistics 1872-1911:
| Company | Town | bold=exact | |
| Lake Superior Iron & Chemical Co | Boyne City | - | - |
| Lake Superior Iron & Chemical Co | Chocolay | - | |
| Mitchell-Diggins Iron Co | Cadillac | ' | - |
| East Jordan Furnace Co | East Jordan | ' | - |
| Cleveland-Cliffs Iron Co | Gladstone | ' | - |
| Antrim Iron Co | Antrim | ' | - |
| Pioneer Iron Co | Marquette | ' | 2 furnaces |
| Stephenson Charcoal Iron Co | Wells | - | - |
| Charcoal Iron Company of America | Chocolay | - | - |
| Charcoal Iron Company of America | Boyne City | ' | - |
| Charcoal Iron Company of America | Elk Rapids | - | - |
| Charcoal Iron Company of America | Manistique | ' | - |
| Charcoal Iron Company of America | Newberry | ' | - |
| New Metals Process Co | Marquette | - |
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.| 1924 | $557.284 |
| 1925 | $1,067,945 |
| 1926 | $1,077,463 |
| 1927 | $1,137,052 |
| 1928 | $1,262,381 |
| 1929 | $1,939,262 |
The company issued $500,000 in 15-year bonds dated May 1, 1923, as collateral a sheet steel plant of 36,000 tons per year capacity to cost ca. $1 million. Incorporated in New Jersey on September 23, 1922 with George R. Fink president, the Ecorse, Michigan sheet mill plant on 40 acres and built since December 1922, 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. The company issued $1,250,000 10-year 6% bonds dated Nov 1, 1928 to redeem all remaining $239,500 of the prior bonds, for plant additions and working capital. The company also had 220,000 no par shares authorized and outstanding cash and split 10-for-1 in July 1928; 50,000 made available in an initial public offering at $50 per share in August 1928. With over $12,000,000 market capitalization as of October 1928, was traded on the Detroit Stock Exchange from October 1928 until Feb 17, 1931 and on October 20, 1928 began paying a quarterly dividend of cents.
The company had previously paid dividends on the 22,000 shares in each of the 5 years 1924-1928, a total of $53.75 per share. The stock traded on the New York Curb Exchange for a few months and was listed on the NYSE from end of April 1929 till January 27, 1931.
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.
| Date | Event |
| May 25, 1929 | Excavation starts |
| June 28 | First pile driven |
| August 14 | First concrete poured |
| August 23, 1930 | first open hearth heat |
| August 25 | first ingot rolled on the blooming and billet mills |
| September 2 | first strip rolled |
| March 1931 | 14-inch merchant mill first roll |
| July 1931 | 10-inch merchant mill first roll |
| August 5, 1931 | NSC announced completion of work |
| 1933 | Open hearth #7 and #8 completed |
| October 1935 | Open hearth #9, #10, #11, #12 completed |
| March 23, 1936 | Hot strip mill operating |
| June 1 | Cold strip mill operating |
| February 1938 | Open hearth #13, #14, #15, #16 in second OH shop completed |
| May 23, 1938 | second blooming/slabbing mill operating |
| August 16, 1938 | Blast furnace #3 blown in |
| October 6, 1938 | Byproduct coke plant blown in |
| 1941 | Sintering plant begins operations |
| December 9, 1941 | Blast furnace #4 blown in |
| 1946 | Bessemer converter #1, #2 for OH shop No. 1 installed |
| 1949 | Open hearth enlarged to 500 tons |
| September 22, 1952 | Blast furnace #5 blown in |
| 1953 | Bessemers for OH shop No. 2 installed |
| January 1, 1955 | new coke plant completed |
National Steel Corp
The National Steel Corp. was a holding company, incorporated in Delaware on November 7, 1929. It had an authorized capital of 3,000,000 shares and 2,080,000 were issued in exchange for:- 1,120,000 shares or 4.7 NSC shares for each par $100 share of the Weirton Steel Company
- 560,000 NSC shares for shares of certain Hanna subsidiaries
- 400,000 NSC shares exchanged 1:1 for no par common shares of Great Lakes. Great Lakes shareholders also received warrants to purchase share at $62.50 per share before Dec 31, 1929 and again before Oct 1, 1934. President George R. Fink received warrants for 20,000 shares at $50 before Oct 1, 1934 to honor his existing similar right to Great Lakes stock.
| Company | Ingot Tons |
| U.S. Steel | 24,201,500 |
| Bethlehem Steel | 8,000,000 |
| Jones & Laughlin | 3,270,000 |
| Youngstown Sheet & Tube | 2,717,000 |
| Republic Iron & Steel | 2,160,000 |
| Inland Steel | 1,800,000 |
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.
In January 1931 NSC purchased all assets and assumed all liabilities of the Michigan Steel Corp in exchange for:
- $6,062,500 in 10-year 5% notes due Jan 1, 1941, called for redemption May 11, 1931
- $3,031,287 in cash
- 60,625 NSC shares, or at the discretion of Michigan Steel shareholders, $50 in cash per share instead. Only 7.098 shares were eventually taken and the total cash paid was $5,707,650.
- Weirton Steel Co.
- Weirton Coal Company
- The Hanna Furnace Corp
- The Hanna Furnace Corp
- The Hanna Iron Ore Company
- The Producers Steamship Company
- Great Lakes Steel Corp
- Michigan Steel Corp
- Midwest Steel Corp
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.
| Company | par | Shares before | Shares after | |
| Hanna Furnace Corp | $10 | 989,500 | 100 | property transferred to Great Lakes Steel Corp |
| Weirton Steel Co | $100 | 237,720 | 1,000 | no change in book value of shares |
| Great Lakes Steel | no par | 400,000 | 1,000 | no change in book value of shares |
| Hanna Iron Ore Co | no par | 50,000 | 1,000 | no change in book value of shares |
| Producers SS Co | $100 | 9,600 | 1,000 | re-incorporated in Delaware, no change in book value |
| Virginia Ore Mining Co | $100 | 60 | 0 | - |
During 1933 all outstanding 2,156,832 shares of no par value were exchanged 1:1 for shares of $25 par. The authorized capital in 1939 was still 3,000,000 shares and there were then 2,199,822 outstanding. Effective March 30, 1950 the common stock was split 3-for-1.
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.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. 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.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. The company stumbled through troubled years as it shed thousands of workers and faced bankruptcy in 1991.
Amidst the savings and loan crisis in 1981, West Side Federal Savings and Loan Association of New York and the Washington Savings and Loan Association of Miami were acquired and merged with Citizens, creating the country's largest federally chartered savings and loan association. The Federal Home Loan Bank Board approved the first interstate consolidation of savings and loan associations largely because National Steel was willing to provide $75 million in cash to the new association, whose combined assets would be $6.8 billion with 136 branches in the three states. The branches were rebranded as First Nationwide Savings in 1982, when National Steel sold a 19% share of First Nationwide to the public. Ford Motor Company acquired First Nationwide for $493 million in 1985.
National Steel spun-off its computer data subsidiary Genix which spun-off the current-day Corporate Election Services, a market leader in proxy statement and proxy fight services based in suburban Pittsburgh.
1990s
The company announced in 1991 that it would re-locate its longtime Pittsburgh headquarters to the South Bend, Indiana, area.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. U.S. Steel was incensed and filed a lawsuit which the two companies settled out-of-court in 1995. 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.
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.The company filed for bankruptcy protection in 2002, the result of a deep depression in the industry.