Sparrows Point

The struggling Sparrows Point steel mill could be sold within the next six months, mill owner RG Steel said Monday. "We're not going to be specific at this time," said Bette Kovach, an RG Steel spokeswoman, as she confirmed comments by two company executives that potential buyers were eyeing the Baltimore County plant, as well as others owned by the firm. Speaking last week to the Baltimore chapter of the Association of Women in the Metal Industries, Jerry Nelson, RG Steel's chief commercial officer, said that "people have expressed interest" in acquiring some RG Steel plants and that "I think it's safe to say everything is on the table.

It's deja vu at Sparrows Point. The Baltimore County plant once again faces wholesale layoffs and a possible sale. The same story has played out every couple of years for the past decade at the steel plant, whose future remains in limbo. The revolving pattern of new owners and layoffs that began when longtime owner Bethlehem Steel declared bankruptcy in 2001 leaves some questioning how much more the Sparrows Point plant can take and remain viable. "How many lives does a mill have?"

The owner of the financially ailing Sparrows Point steel plant is idling operations there, warning 1,975 workers Thursday that they would be laid off starting next month. The news, the latest casting doubt on the future of the Baltimore County facility, came as RG Steel is shopping the steel mill and its other assets to potential buyers. RG Steel informed the Maryland Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulations that layoffs would begin June 4 and continue through June 18. The state said the company would be laying off 1,714 hourly and 261 salaried workers, losses that would be a significant blow to the economy.

The owner of the financially ailing Sparrows Point steel plant is idling operations there, warning 1,975 workers Thursday that they would be laid off starting next month. The news, the latest casting doubt on the future of the Baltimore County facility, came as RG Steel is shopping the steel mill and its other assets to potential buyers. RG Steel informed the Maryland Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulations that layoffs would begin June 4 and continue through June 18. The state said the company would be laying off 1,714 hourly and 261 salaried workers, losses that would be a significant blow to the economy.

Speculation about WCI Steel's bankruptcy started circulating early in 2003. Owned by New York billionaire Ira Rennert and his family, the Warren, Ohio, steelmaker was missing payments to suppliers. A lousy economy and tough competition were bleeding the mill of cash, even as it cut costs by outsourcing functions once performed by plant personnel. "We have no intention of filing for federal bankruptcy protection," a mill spokesman told The Vindicator newspaper of Youngstown, Ohio.

For the first time in 15 years, Bethlehem Steel Corp.'s Sparrows Point steel mill has asked for applications from the general public to fill up to 200 jobs at the Baltimore County plant.The request, which has been met by an avalanche of more than 4,500 inquiries, comes as the steel mill is working at full capacity and workers -- whose average age is 50 -- are putting in an average of five to six hours of overtime a week."We want new people," said Duane R. Dunham, president of Bethlehem's Sparrows Point Division.

The Sparrows Point steel mill experienced an outage late last week that caused the suspension of both the basic oxygen steelmaking furnace and the blast furnace, Bette Kovach, a spokeswoman for the mill's owner, RG Steel LLC, said Tuesday. Kovach said that customer orders would not be affected and that the plant was working to resume hot metal operations "as soon as possible later this week. " Kovach declined to provide additional details about the incident. RG Steel is a new subsidiary of the Renco Group, owned by financier Ira Rennert, which bought the steel mill from Severstal North America in March as part of a $1.2 billion deal involving three steel mills.

When you're still being dragged along in the gnarly wake of the Great Recession, bristling with the splinters of the housing bust and other flotsam of the financial meltdown, it's hard to see much of a future, much less big ships on the horizon. But they are out there, or on their way - big ships, wider than ever, carrying cargo up the coast, up the Chesapeake to the Port of Baltimore. In a couple of years, a wider Panama Canal will open for business. The wider canal will mean larger ships - new megaships - making the run from Asia to the East Coast, instead of always stopping in Pacific ports.

In Dan Rodricks ' otherwise intriguing discussion of the future of Sparrows Point ("Re-imagining Sparrows Point," Nov. 6) I found the total absence of any mention of environmental impact startling. I believe that we need to include environmental interests at the beginning so it is built into any development plan, not put on as a somewhat unwelcome afterthought. Natalie Dandekar

Environmental groups are appealing a federal judge's ruling that the owners of the Sparrows Point steel mill need only do a limited search for offshore pollution from the plant. The Chesapeake Bay Foundation and its legal partners, including the Baltimore Harbor Waterkeeper, have filed notice with the U.S. District Court in Baltimore of their intention to appeal a decision by Judge J. Frederick Motz accepting a plan by the steel plant's current owner, RG Steel, to test for contamination no more than 50 feet into the Patapsco River and Bear Creek.

WEATHER Today's forecast calls for cloudy skies, patchy fog and a chance of showers and thunderstorms, with a high temperature near 79 degrees. Monday night is expected to be cloudy, with a low temperature around 67 degrees. TRAFFIC Check our traffic updates for this morning's issues as you plan your commute. FROM LAST NIGHT... Officer thrown from I-83 sues driver, vehicle owner : The Baltimore police officer who was thrown over the side of Interstate 83 and fell 20 feet after a car crashed into her vehicle as she helped a stranded motorist has filed a multimillion-dollar lawsuit against the driver and the owner of the vehicle.

The struggling Sparrows Point steel mill could be sold within the next six months, mill owner RG Steel said Monday. "We're not going to be specific at this time," said Bette Kovach, an RG Steel spokeswoman, as she confirmed comments by two company executives that potential buyers were eyeing the Baltimore County plant, as well as others owned by the firm. Speaking last week to the Baltimore chapter of the Association of Women in the Metal Industries, Jerry Nelson, RG Steel's chief commercial officer, said that "people have expressed interest" in acquiring some RG Steel plants and that "I think it's safe to say everything is on the table.

The struggling Sparrows Point steel plant will resume operations of its "L" blast furnace Saturday after it was temporarily shut down for routine maintenance, the company said. In a letter to customers Friday, RG Steel chief commercial officer Jerry Nelson said the temporary outage that began Wednesday would not have a "detrimental effect on our delivery performance. " Earlier this month, RG Steel told managers and executives, including those at Sparrows Point, that it is cutting their salaries because of weak economic conditions.

RG Steel LLC is cutting the salaries of managers and executives, including those at Sparrows Point in Baltimore County, because of weak economic conditions. The company sent a letter to employees Monday that said it would temporarily slash the pay of salaried workers by 10 percent beginning May 1. Company executive pay was reduced by 25 percent. RG Steel will also stop contributing to the 401(k) plans of the employees affected. "We view this as temporary until the company can get on better financial footing," said spokeswoman Bette Kovach.

Environmental groups are appealing a federal judge's ruling that the owners of the Sparrows Point steel mill need only do a limited search for offshore pollution from the plant. The Chesapeake Bay Foundation and its legal partners, including the Baltimore Harbor Waterkeeper, have filed notice with the U.S. District Court in Baltimore of their intention to appeal a decision by Judge J. Frederick Motz accepting a plan by the steel plant's current owner, RG Steel, to test for contamination no more than 50 feet into the Patapsco River and Bear Creek.

Harry William Kluth Jr., a retired Bethlehem Steel Corp. engineer who played an instrumental role in the design and operation of the L Blast Furnace at Sparrows Point, died April 16 of heart failure at the Glen Meadows retirement community in Glen Arm. The longtime Cub Hill resident was 83. The son of a head teller for Union Trust Co. and a homemaker was born in Baltimore and raised in the city's Pimlico neighborhood. After graduating from Polytechnic Institute in 1946, he began his career at Bethlehem Steel while earning an engineering degree at night from the Johns Hopkins University in 1961.

To last another century, the Sparrows Point steel mill needs maybe $1 billion invested in new equipment or an act of God that moves Baltimore closer to Detroit and the manufacturing customers there. Which event is more likely to occur is debatable. Ira Rennert, whose Renco Group has agreed to buy Sparrows Point and two other mills owned by Severstal North America, does not have a reputation as a big spender. (On his companies. What he spends on himself is another matter entirely.

The Sparrows Point steel mill in Baltimore County is offering temporary, voluntary layoffs to "a small number of its employees," said company spokeswoman Elizabeth "Bette" Kovach. She would not give a specific number of layoffs but said the company is still accepting volunteers. Russian steelmaker Severstal, which bought Sparrows Point in 2008, has been looking for ways to cut costs as its U.S. operations have dragged down earnings. The union that represents 2,500 employees at the plant received a draft proposal in the fall from Severstal detailing a restructuring that could impact as many as one-third of the jobs at the plant.

A three-alarm fire tore through a church in the 4300 block of North Point Blvd. in Sparrows Point on Tuesday night, causing parts of the roof to collapse, according to a Baltimore County fire official. Responding to a 7:38 p.m. call reporting a fire at Pleasant Zion Baptist Church, fire crews found a shed and wooden pallets at the rear of the church engulfed in flames, said Lt. Jay Ringgold. The fire quickly spread to the roof of the church, and the crew requested a second alarm, Ringgold said.

A federal judge signed off on a deal between government regulators and the owner of the Sparrows Point steel plant requiring the company only to look near its shoreline for toxic contaminants it might need to clean up. U.S. District Court Judge J. Frederick Motz accepted an agreement between RG Steel and the Environmental Protection Agency and Maryland Department of the Environment on how far into surrounding waters the company needs to look...