International Steel Group Scores Another Gain

---

Researched by Industrialinfo.com (Industrial Information Resources, Incorporated; Houston, Texas). International Steel Group Incorporated (ISG) (WL Ross' private investment firm) formed in February, 2002, to acquire and run the mills of bankrupt steelmaker LTV (Youngstown, Ohio), has rescued yet another mothballed U.S. steel mill. ISG's latest acquisition is the former Acme Steel (Chicago, Illinois) Riverdale Mill in Riverdale, Illinois. Assets included the compact-strip process minimill, with a state-of-the-art thin slab caster and hot strip mill, which were purchased for $65 million. ISG expects to have the mill up and running by the end of this year, and is already in the process of restaffing the mill.

Earlier this summer, ISG reopened the former LTV steel works, which it had purchased for $325 million, in East Chicago, Indiana, Hennepin, Illinois, and Warren, Ohio, and has brought them back up in record time and with record efficiency. ISG's competitors would be wise to take notice of ISG's operations and to streamline their own, in an industry noted for its obsolete, restrictive work rules, inefficient outdated mills, inflated wages, and overpriced products trying to compete in a global community that demands leaner, meaner operations.