Charter Steel Continues Expansion Mode

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Researched by Industrialinfo.com (Industrial Information Resources, Incorporated; Houston, Texas). Charter Steel Incorporated, a subsidiary of Charter Manufacturing Company (Mequon, Wisconsin), began rolling product in April of this year at its recently acquired mill operation, the former American Steel and Wire mill located in Cleveland, Ohio. The site, which includes steel SBQ (Special Bar Quality) bar, rod, and wire rolling mills, had shutdown operations in the Summer of 2001 due to poor market conditions and the owner at that time, Birmingham Steel, sold the operation to Charter Steel early this year.

Charter Steel has choosen to restart only the bar mill, which is the most modern of the mills at the site, having been constructed in 1995. The $110 million mill was engineered by Hatch Associates (Buffalo, New York). The bar mill, which has an ultimate capacity of 600,000 tons per year, is currently producing 15,000 tons a month. Charter Steel hopes to increase mill production up to 40,000 tons a month by the end of the year through the addition of 12-hour work shifts.

The remaining buildings and equipment at the site will be demolished, dismantled, and salvaged at some point in the future. This equipment includes a reheat furnace, a 450,000 ton per year rod mill, and wire drawing machines. Some site remediation will take place. Long term plans at the site include the addition of a melt shop, which would supply feedstock, which is currently brought in from outside sources, for the plant's bar mill.

The purchase of the American Steel and Wire plant caps a multi-year expansion program initiated by Charter Steel. In early 2000 the company announced the selection of a site in Fond Du Lac, Wisconsin for the construction of a coil processing and melt shop complex. In April of 2001 the company completed construct of a 25,000 ton per year stainless steel coil processing plant at Fond Du Lac. Plans for the melt shop at Fond Du Lac have been put on hold as the company digests the Cleveland facility acquisition and possible plans for melt capacity at Cleveland.

In December of 2000 the company started up a new $18 million steel wire processing plant in Rising Sun, Ohio.

The company has also recently completed a $20 million steel processing expansion and a $14 million bar mill expansion at its mother plant in Saukville, Wisconsin.

The company runs three separate mills at its mother site in Saukville, Wisconsin. This includes a melt shop, rod/bar/wire mills, and a steel processing plant. It also operates steel processing facilities in Rising Sun, Ohio and Fond Du Lac, Wisconsin.