Bethlehem Steel Corporation

The Bethlehem Steel Corporation was the second largest steel producer in the United States, after US Steel but it is now part of the International Steel Group (ISG). It was also one of the largest shipbuilding companies in the US.

History

It began on April 8, 1857 as the Saucona Iron Works in South Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, then on May 1, 1861 changed the name to Bethlehem Iron Works. In its early years it produced railroad rails and armor plating for the US Navy. It became the Bethlehem Steel Company in 1899, then in 1904 Charles M. Schwab (recently resigned from US Steel) formed the Bethlehem Steel Corporation and became its first president and chairman of the board of directors. The Bethlehem Steel Corporation installed the revolutionary grey rolling mill and began producing the first wide-flange structural shapes to be made in America. These shapes ushered in the age of the skyscraper and established the Bethlehem plant as a leading supplier to the construction industry.

By this time the corporation had branched out from steel, with iron mines in Cuba and shipyards around the country. In 1913 it acquired the Fore River Shipbuilding Company of Quincy, Massachusetts, thereby becoming one of the major shipbuilders.

In 1916, Eugene G. Grace became president, and in 1945 chairman, leading the company until 1960. He acquired a number of additional steel plants in the 1920s, and Bethlehem produced the steel for many of the country's landmarks, including the Golden Gate Bridge, Rockefeller Center, and Madison Square Garden.

In both World Wars, the Bethlehem corporation was a major supplier of armor plate and ordnance products. Many of the nation's fighting ships used armor plate and large caliber guns supplied by the Bethlehem plant.

During World War II, Bethlehem's 15 shipyards produced a total of 1,121 ships, more than any other builder during the war, employing as many as 180,000 persons in the process (company total employment was 300,000). When peacetime came, the plant continued to supply a wide variety of structural shapes for the construction trades and forged products for defense, power generation and steel-producing companies.

Bethlehem's high point came in the 1950s, with a total capacity of 23 million tons per year, and it built its largest plant, at Burns Harbor, Indiana, between 1962 and 1964.

In the mid-1980s, the market for the plant's structural products began to change, and new competition entered the marketplace. Lighter, lower construction styles – resulting in low-rise buildings not requiring the heavy structural grades produced at the Bethlehem plant – caused Bethlehem Steel to announce that it would discontinue its steelmaking activities at the main Bethlehem plant by the end of 1995. After roughly 140 years of metal production at its Bethlehem, Pennsylvania plant, Bethlehem Steel ceased operations in Bethlehem. With the closing of its local operations, the corporation decided to help revitalize the South Side of Bethlehem, and hired outside consultants to develop conceptual plans on the reuse of the property. The consensus was to rename the 163 acre (660,000 m²) site "Bethlehem Works" and to use the land for cultural, recreational, educational, entertainment and retail development—including the National Museum of Industrial History, in association with the Smithsonian Institution, and the Bethlehem Commerce Center, consisting of 1,600 acres (6.5 km²) of prime industrial property.

As cheaper foreign steel started appearing on the market, and by 1982 Bethlehem reported a loss of US$1.5 billion and was forced to shut down many of its operations. Profitability returned in 1988, but restructuring and shutdowns continued through the 1980s and 1990s.

In 2001 Bethlehem filed for bankruptcy, and in 2003 it was acquired by the International Steel Group.

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