Steel Mill

The current owner of Sparrows Point is a rapidly growing multinational steel giant controlled by one of the world's richest men. Sparrows Point's new owner will be a rapidly growing multinational steel giant controlled by one of the world's richest men. But there are some key differences. Seller ArcelorMittal is controlled by the world's fourth-richest man, Lakshmi N. Mittal, according to Forbes magazine, which this month estimated his net worth at $45 billion. Mittal was already a billionaire when he began buying up steel companies, and the behemoth he's assembled is the world's biggest steelmaker.

In a ruling that's left Dundalk-area residents shaking their heads, a federal court has declared that recent owners of the century-old steel-making complex at Sparrows Point can't be made to clean up past contamination of surrounding waters. U.S. District Court Judge J. Frederick Motz ruled that under the terms of a 2003 bankruptcy sale of the steel mill, the company that bought Sparrows Point from Bethlehem Steel Corp. could not be held liable for any pollution that escaped the 2,300-acre peninsula before that sale.

The deal to sell the Sparrows Point steel mill to E2 Acquisition Corp. is in flux as discussions continue while possible new partners wait in the wings. Two self-imposed deadlines have come and gone as ArcelorMittal and E2 and the United Steelworkers union have tried to hammer out a final agreement. Because of the delays, agreements between E2 partners and Chicago Heights, Ill.-based Esmark Inc., which is leading the joint venture, have expired. The global investor group includes Franklin Templeton Investments; Companhia Vale do Rio Doce, a Brazilian iron ore producer; and Industrial Union of Donbass Corp.

ArcelorMittal SA is expected to sell the Sparrows Point steel mill to a group led by Chicago-based Esmark Inc., giving the 118-year-old Baltimore County plant its fourth owner in as many years. Luxembourg-based ArcelorMittal SA, the world's largest steel producer, could announce the deal as early as today, according to a source with knowledge of the agreement. A spokesman for ArcelorMittal in Chicago declined to comment yesterday, and mill management said they had not received final word of a sale.

Russian steelmaker OAO Severstal announced yesterday that it is buying the steel plant at Sparrows Point and says it plans to run the mill at full capacity and invest up to half a billion dollars during the next five years to improve productivity. Severstal, led by a Russian billionaire who is one of the world's wealthiest men, emerged as the successful bidder in the government-ordered sale, saying it will pay $810 million in cash for the Baltimore County plant. An agreement with an earlier buyer that would have paid Luxembourg-based ArcelorMittal $1.3 billion for the plant collapsed over a lack of financing.

For the better part of three decades, as Richard Offley grew from a boy to a man on the peninsula between the Patapsco and Back rivers, the Sparrows Point steel mill was at the center of community life. Back then, it was still owned by Bethlehem Steel Corp., as it had been since 1916, and many of its employees lived in its namesake company town. The mill put food on their tables, maintained their schools and churches and sponsored the softball teams. "`The Company,' we called it, whatever the Company wanted, that's pretty much what happened," said Offley, 62. "They owned the town, they owned the fire department, they owned the police department.

Chicago-based Esmark Inc. is still awaiting word from investment bankers for Mittal Steel Co. NV on whether its bid for the steel mill at Sparrows Point passes muster. The Justice Department ruled last month that Mittal, the world's largest steelmaker, must sell Sparrows Point to settle antitrust concerns arising from its $33 billion merger with Arcelor SA of Luxembourg. At the time, Mittal had signed a nonbinding agreement to sell a sister plant in Weirton, W.Va., to Esmark in hopes of satisfying antitrust concerns over tin plate production.

A multinational joint venture that has pledged to reverse years of downsizing at the Sparrows Point steel mill said yesterday that it has won Justice Department approval to buy the Baltimore County plant for $1.35 billion. E2 Acquisition Corp., the buyers group led by Chicago metals distributor Esmark Inc., said it expects to close the deal with Mittal Steel NV by mid-October and become the mill's fourth owner in as many years. The sale is being viewed as a potential turning point by the plant's 2,450 hourly and salaried workers, who under a succession of owners have seen their numbers rise and fall with every gyration in the volatile global steel market.

Growing up in Dundalk, Kent Mosmiller knew about Sparrows Point Country Club. He spent summers on little boats along Bear Creek where he could check out the 40-foot cabin cruisers at the club marina and, beyond that, the green expanse of the golf course. It wasn't for him or his family. The club was an enclave for what he called "white hats" at Bethlehem Steel, which established the club as a benefit for supervisors in the 1920s. Neither Mosmiller nor his parents ever worked for the company.