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 About Us    The
history of Weirton Steel Corporation is a classic story of American enterprise. It was
founded in 1909 by Ernest Weir, who with wits and determination, built Weirton into one of
the world's leading steel producers. The key to Weir's success was simple; invest in the company in good times, seize opportunity in tough times. It's a solid formula that still works at today's Weirton Steel.
Ernest T. Weir embodied the self-made man. With only an eighth- grade education, Weir rose through the ranks of U.S. Steel Corporation, where he started as an office boy. By age 28, he was general manager of the Monessen tin plate mill near his hometown of Pittsburgh. In 1905, Weir took the chance of his life. He left his secure job and bought a tin mill in Clarksburg, W.Va., with partner James Phillips. By 1909, Weir had expanded and relocated his operation to Holiday's Cove, W.Va. Holiday's Cove -- today's Weirton -- was then a quiet village on the Ohio River. The site provided the abundant water supply Weir needed for steel production, yet had lacked in Clarksburg and offered ready access to major steel markets. In less than six years, Weir was operating 50 hot mills in three locations; the second largest tin plate producer in the world. He had acquired several other facilities, adding capacity to produce hot and cold-rolled sheets. To better coordinate production between the locations, he restructured in 1918 to form Weirton Steel Company.
Weirton's Growth Tied to Technical Excellence In 1929, Weir merged Weirton Steel with Detroit's Michigan Steel and Cleveland's M.A. Hanna Steel to form National Steel Corporation. National Steel quickly took a place among the nation's largest steel producers. Weirton expanded its operations throughout the 1940's, 1950's and 1960's while setting production records and pioneering technical advances in the industry. In 1967 Weirton added a Basic Oxygen Plant and a continuous caster that put the company at the leading edge of steel manufacturing technology, a tradition that continues at today's Weirton Steel. Throughout its history, Weirton Steel never had a significant labor strike. Its committed work force is legendary in the Ohio Valley. But in the 1970's and 1980's, that commitment would be tested. The American steel industry was facing tough overseas competition. Weirton itself was losing market share as aluminum supplanted tin in the beverage industry. How Weirton faced those challenges is a remarkable story.
Will We Survive? Weirton's Workers Forge a Future In 1982, National Steel made a devastating announcement. It would not invest any more significant capital in the Weirton division. The Weirton community was stunned. Without major capital improvements, the company could not compete. A shutdown was unthinkable, but what was the alternative? A Joint Study Committee, headed by Weirton's then-president Jack Redline and representatives from labor, spent months considering a radical option. Could Weirton's employees buy the company from National, under an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP)? Never had so large a company attempted to operate under employee ownership. In 1984, Weirton employees took a major pay cut to forge ahead under the plan. Focusing on high-quality, low cost steel products, Weirton posted profits in its first years under the ESOP after several years of lagging profits. It was the beginning of a new era for Weirton Steel; then the nation's largest wholly employee-owned company.
Despite this early success, the need for capital improvements still stood. In 1989, Weirton employees voted to relinquish some shares of the company stock in an initial public offering to finance a five-year $500 million capital improvement program. A second offering in 1994 shored up debt incurred in modernizing the plant. By 1996, its debt reduced and the plant modernized, the company stood once again on firm financial footing. However, the negative effects of a nationwide steel import crisis that began in 1998 have significantly reduced the company's production output, harmed its ability to control pricing and severely hampered its financial performance. Weirton and other domestic companies have been leading the charge for the U.S. government to uphold federal trade laws that ban dumped and subsidized foreign steel and impose much-needed tariffs to help the industry recover from the devastation caused by unfairly traded imports. Today, Weirton Steel is the seventh largest integrated steel producer in the nation. The company employs 3,800 workers, and has a reported revenue of $1.1 billion. Weirton stock is listed and traded on the Over-The-Counter Bulletin Board (OTCBB) under the symbol WRTL. Ranked first in customer service among steel producers by a leading independent survey, Weirton has renewed its commitment to continuous technical improvement and innovation. Explore our site to learn more about Weirton's products and current research and development efforts.
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