Armco Steel Corporation - Ashland, KY
N 38° 29.932 W 082° 40.527
17S E 353897 N 4262497
Armco Steel Corporation, now known as AK Steel was added to the ASM list in 1975 as the First Continuous Sheet Rolling Mill. The Mill is still in operation but much of their production went to the plant in Ohio in the 1980's.
Waymark Code: WM2RA4
Location: Kentucky, United States
Date Posted: 12/12/2007
Views: 183
Armco Steel, Ashland provided the steel for the blast doors at Cheyenne Mountain's NORAD location. My grandfather worked for Armco then and my father worked at NORAD.
Armco Steel also survived the great flood of the Ohio River in the 1930's. Most of the mill was under water.
The following information comes from Wikipedia and relates specifically to the Ashland AK Steel (Armco) plant rather than AK as a whole.
Armco
One of the largest industrial developments in Ashland was announced in 1920. President George M. Verity, president of Armco, proposed to construct a steel mill. When it was completed on October 19, 1923, it featured a continuous rolling method to produce steel sheets, the first of its kind in the nation. Armco later purchased the old Ashland Steel Company, followed by the Norton Iron Works and the old Ironton Furnaces.
In 1920, Armco employed 3,600 but just eighteen years later, that had increased to 5,500. In 1954, the payroll increased to 7,500 before decreasing to 4,500 by 1972, 3,500 in 1982, 1,630 by 1986 and just 700 by 1992.
In 1925, the Ashland Culvert Works company was founded, later purchased by Armco and renamed to the Armco Drainage and Metal Products Company.
On March 12, 1941, ground was broken for the Bellefonte Furnace. Completed in 1942 at a cost of $5 million, it produced 1,000/tons of steel per day.
In 1950, a $40 million expansion was completed. A new hot-strip mill was opened on May 20, 1953 that employed 3,000.One year later, a cold reduction mill, strip pickler, light gauge zincgrip and a heavy gauge zincgrip was completed at a cost of $12 million. At the close of the 1950s, Armco announced another $95 million upgrade, later upgraded to $145 million. In 1963, the Amanda blast furnace was completed as part of the upgrade.
In August 1984, Tom Gorder became the president of Armco's Ashland Works. Trying to stem the loss of 2,000 jobs in 10 years, he stated he would help consolidate Ashland and Middletown, Ohio's steel mills together in an effort to improve efficiency. That resulted in the closure of the hot strip mill, however, a new slab caster was constructed that provided steel slabs for Middletown. The hot strip mill's closure in 1992, however, eliminated 930 jobs. The Sinter plant, cold strip mill, temper mills, pickling lines, annealing lines and machine shop all closed by 1995.
In May 1989, Armco sold 40 percent of its company to Kawasaki Steel of Japan; the remainder was sold in 1994 and the plant was renamed for AK Steel.
By becoming more efficient, the plant saw increasing profits. The workforce increased to 900 by 2004. On April 2, 2004, Governor Ernie Fletcher announced a $40 million tax break that would help fund a vacuum degassing unit and modification to the slab caster, crucial to coke making and steel options. The modifications also made steel production for automobiles easier.
Location:
Located on 700 acres along the Ohio River on the border of Boyd and Greenup Counties, AK Steel Ashland Works can't be missed because of its two towering furnaces - Amanda and Bellefonte.
Type of structure/site: Steel Mill
Engineering Organization Listing: ASM International
Primary Web Site: [Web Link]
Secondary Web Site: [Web Link]
Date of Construction: Not listed
Engineer/Architect/Builder etc.: Not listed
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