Weirton: Forged by Steel - Owned by Mittal
Posted by Paul Woodhouse at August 20th, 2007
Weirton Town Sign
You know that steel industry flickr group I mentioned last week and that picture of the steel mill in Weirton just down the road from my current abode?
Yes, this steel mill in Weirton.
Well it looks like I’ve somehow cursed the place as the news this weekend led with the story that Arcelor Mittal will soon be closing its hot mill there.
More than 200 layoffs and the demolition or sale of some steelmaking facilities are anticipated in Weirton, as Mayor Mark Harris has been notified that Arcelor Mittal will close its hot mill there soon.
According to Harris, Mike LaWell from the public relations firm Public Affairs Associates contacted him and City Manager Gary DuFour and told them the hot mill would be shut down due to significant financial losses involved with keeping it open.
But the weird thing about the rest of the article is how the mayor manages to spin the closure by being extremely grateful to Mittal for demolishing the abandoned parts of the mill.
“I was surprised when I got the call,” Harris said. “It is sad that we are losing the hot mill, but there seems to be a positive side.”
The mayor said Mittal has made several positive capital improvements and investments toward improving the tin mill facility. LaWell informed Harris that Arcelor Mittal has placed its focus on becoming a “very serious and competitive” tin mill operation.
LaWell also said Arcelor Mittal was considering selling unused portions of the mill to interested parties. One such portion is the open hearth, for which Arcelor Mittal recently gave the approval for demolition.
“Getting rid of the abandoned sections of the mill is really a plus for the city,” said Harris. “If the plan is not to have them reopened, then it would be beneficial to get rid of them and help clean up the downtown area.”
Well at least downtown will get cleaned up as there’ll be 200 extra folk milling about on a daily basis without anything else better to do.
The other peculiar thing I found when doing a search for weirton steel
, the first result is www.weirton.com - they own the domain for the town itself!
Am I putting the cart before the horse here?
UPDATE: There’s now a new West Virginia jobs site that caters primarily for anybody looking for work in the Northern Panhandle and Ohio Valley in particular. It’s called takemehomeohiovalley.com and you may have heard about it on the telly or the radio.
It is very sad. Do you work at Weirton Steel? I was laid off in ‘05. It seems people holding local public offices still dont get the urgent need to market our local assets to prospective developers.
I moved to Wheeling via Cleveland from the UK and came across the steel mill photo group, saw a report on the local news and realized the picture I’d put up was of the Weirton plant.
I’m sorry to hear you got laid off.
It seems that it’s going to be a desperately sad time for a few more. And those in public office are intent on peddling the myth that WV is ‘open for business.’