Steel Mill

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.

A liquidation firm won the bidding for Sparrows Point, offering $72 million for the Baltimore County steel mill - less than a tenth of what the complex sold for just four years earlier - and realizing the worst fears of its roughly 2,000 employees. Mill advocates vowed to push for a miracle to keep steelmaking going there. The local United Steelworkers union had hoped for a steelmaker would buy and restart the mill - idled after owner RG Steel filed for bankruptcy in May. But no steelmaking companies showed up to bid at the Tuesday afternoon auction in New York, said Joe Rosel, president of Local 9477 in Locust Point.

Most of the Sparrows Point steel mill employees who were laid off several days before Christmas will be returning to work, according to a union representative. "There will be a little bit [of] a trickle, but the bulk of them will be returning this weekend," said Chris MacLarion, acting president of United Steelworkers Local 9477, which represents workers at the Baltimore County steel mill. Employees who work in the initial stages of steel making will return to work first, he said.

The Maryland Food Bank said it handed out food Wednesday to hundreds of families affected by the mass layoffs at Sparrows Point. About 2,000 workers lost their jobs after RG Steel filed for bankruptcy in late May and idled the Baltimore County steel mill. The property since has been sold to owners who are trying to find a steelmaker to restart operations but will liquidate the mill and redevelop it if they can't. The food bank, which also handed out food on Tuesday to laid-off steelworkers and others buffeted by the shutdown, said it expected to distribute more than 60,000 pounds to more than 1,700 people between the two days.

- A federal bankruptcy judge approved Wednesday night the sale of the Sparrows Point steel mill for $72.5 million to a redevelopment firm working with a liquidation company, but the buyers said the plant might not be dismantled. Hilco Trading, an Illinois liquidator purchasing the property with St. Louis-based Environmental Liability Transfer, told the judge that it would market the mill to potential operators - exactly what the steelworkers' union vowed to do itself in an effort to save Sparrows Point and its 2,000 jobs.

The first big wave of layoffs hit Sparrows Point on Friday after the steel mill's owner essentially shut down its critically important blast furnace. Joe Rosel, president of United Steelworkers Local 9477, said most of the workers told not to report back to the Baltimore County mill next week were in the iron- and steelmaking departments, though he couldn't say how many were notified. Other workers, including many in central maintenance, also were notified. The "L" blast furnace shutdown that began Wednesday starts a domino effect of layoffs that is expected to affect nearly 2,000 workers - all but a few hundred at the steel mill.

One of the Sparrows Point owners broke its silence on the bidding process Thursday to rebut charges that it blocked potential operators from bidding on the steel mill, saying it "seriously considered" all companies with the means to make such a purchase. Hilco Trading, which bought the Baltimore County site with another company at an August bankruptcy auction, had set this Friday as the deadline for bids on all or portions of the property. But last week, the Illinois-based liquidator sold the facility's most valuable mill to steelmaker Nucor, reportedly for spare parts — ending all hope that the plant would be reopened.

About 1,500 Sparrows Point workers overflowed a union hall Monday with urgent questions about the future of the recently sold steel mill - questions that mostly don't have answers yet. The Baltimore County complex's $72.5 million sale to a redevelopment firm working with a liquidation company was approved by a federal bankruptcy judge last week. Benefits for the mill's roughly 2,000 employees are about to end. The meeting came shortly after RG Steel, saying payment obligations under union contracts "are simply too much … to bear," disclosed in court papers that it had come to an agreement with the United Steelworkers of America on an end date.

Hundreds of workers laid off from the Sparrows Point steel mill will receive job retraining and other services under a $3 million U.S. Department of Labor grant announced Monday. The funding will expand job-related services under the National Emergency Grant program to 885 workers affected by the closure. Mill owner RG Steel LLC, which filed for bankruptcy protection in May, is in the midst of laying off nearly 2,000 workers, almost all of its workforce at Sparrows Point. Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski, who had pushed for the grant along with Sen. Ben Cardin, called the funding "a critical lifeline" for the workers.