YORKVILLE - As a result of RG Steel's federal bankruptcy case, remnants of the once famous Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel Corp. are being sold off individually.
Wheeling businessman Quay Mull and attorney Joseph Gomper reportedly purchased the Martins Ferry mill at a Tuesday auction, while the Yorkville plant will be sold to a 50-50 partnership of Pittsburgh-based Esmark Inc. and South Korea's TCC Steel for a reported $4.7 million.
Mull personally confirmed the purchase of RG Steel LLC, Martins Ferry, which is located just north of a steel company he has owned and operated for some years. Court documents confirmed the purchase price as $2 million.
Article Photos
File Photo by Scott McCloskey
RG Steel’s Yorkville plant is among the
bankrupt company’s assets that were sold at auction.
"We will have people in there," Mull said, noting his plans are operationally focused.
The Yorkville mill has been sold and is expected to return to some level of staffing.
"It's very sad day for the Ohio Valley with the liquidation of the Mingo Junction and Martins Ferry assets, and our thoughts and prayers are with the many generations of steel-working families that made up a great company over the past 100 years," said Esmark Chairman and Chief Executive Officer James Bouchard.
"But we are extremely pleased to have entered into agreements to purchase the Yorkville facility and RG Steel's interest in the Ohio Coatings facility."
"We believe Yorkville and Ohio Coatings Co. are very complementary to our existing steel processing and distribution footprint in the Northeast and Midwest, and we intend to continue to operate these facilities along with our partner TCC Steel that will contribute to our growth plans moving forward. We also intend to work with the United Steelworkers of America to bring back as many jobs as possible at Yorkville."
According to the Ohio Coatings Co. website, the plant opened in 1995 along the Ohio River, near the Yorkville RG steel mill. The Ohio Coatings facility was the first electrolytic tin plating mill built in North America in 30 years at the time.
Esmark previously owned all the former Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel facilities before selling them to Russian steelmaker OAO Severstal for $1.23 billion in July 2008. Severstal, after idling the Steubenville and Mingo plants in 2009, later sold these plants to RG Steel.
Following RG's bankruptcy filing on May 31, Esmark announced it planned to repurchase the downtown Wheeling RG Steel headquarters, along with most of the Wheeling Corrugating assets. However, Esmark spokesman Bill Keegan said Wednesday his company would not be acquiring Wheeling Corrugating.
Frontier Industrial on Tuesday bought RG's Mingo Junction facility for $20 million and Nucor Steel purchased equipment only from RG's Wheeling Corrugating. There were no bids for RG's Wheeling headquarters or the remaining 50 percent of the Follansbee coke plant, according to reports.
RG Steel previously sold the idled Steubenville plant to River Rail Development, an arm of Herman Strauss Inc., a Wheeling-based recycling business. River Rail paid $4.3 million for roughly 103 acres, plus another $10.7 million for the scrap and machinery.
None of the sales are deemed final until approved in federal bankruptcy court by U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Kevin Carey. A hearing on the RG Steel sales resulting from Tuesday's auction is set for Aug. 8 in federal bankruptcy court in Delaware.
