California Steel Industries is a steel processing and finishing company that operates a facility near Fontana, California.
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Steelmaking |
| Headquarters | Unincorporated San Bernardino County, California, near Fontana, California |
| Products | Steel |
| Owner | Nucor and JFE Holdings |
| Website | www |
The Fontana plant was built in 1942 by Kaiser Steel, which operated it until December 1983, when it was shuttered as part of the general termination of Kaiser's steel business.[1] The site and plant were briefly owned by an investor group that purchased much of Kaiser's assets before they were sold to a Kaiser creditor, Brazilian firm Companhia Vale do Rio Doce (now Vale), which created California Steel as a joint venture with Kawasaki Steel (now JFE Holdings).[1][2] California Steel paid about $120 million for the facility, and Vale do Rio Doce forgave its debt to Kaiser as part of the transaction.[3][2]
California Steel reopened part of the Fontana plant to process imported steel slabs into finished products such as rolled steel, while the manufacturing equipment for producing raw steel remained idle.[2] At its founding, California Steel operated on about 400 acres of the Fontana site, leaving 1,400 acres idle, and employed 700 people, less than a tenth of the 10,000 that worked at the plant during Kaiser ownership.[1] In 1994, California Steel sold the remaining steel manufacturing infrastructure to Chinese company Shougang, which rebuilt it in southern China as one of that country's most advanced steel mills.[3]
By the end of the 1990s, California Steel had become the largest buyer of unprocessed steel slabs in the world and was profitable, with income of $119 million on revenue of $700 million.[2] Its workforce had grown to about 950, and it imported steel from Mexico, Australia, Russia, China, and South Africa, as well as domestic purchases, and produced about 2 million tons of finished product annually.[2]
Lower demand for steel during the Great Recession caused the company's production to decrease to a low of 800,000 tons in 2009 before it began to recover the following year.[4] In 2010, the company made a profit of $25 million on revenue of $1.1 billion.[5] In 2012, California Steel began construction of a new pipe mill, completion of which in 2014 increased the company's annual production capacity to 3 million tons of rolled steel and 0.6 million tons of pipe.[6]
On December 13, 2021, it was announced that Nucor had bought out Vale's share in the company, along with a small portion of JFE's to become the majority owner of California Steel Industries.[7]
References
edit- ^ a b c "How the Former Kaiser Companies Have Fared : Steel: Fontana Mill Is Still Operating--but It's Only a Shell of Its Former Self". The Los Angeles Times. 4 August 1985. Retrieved 18 April 2017.
- ^ a b c d e "Yes, a Steel Mill Thrives in Southland". The Los Angeles Times. 19 July 2000. Retrieved 18 April 2017.
- ^ a b "Steel Mill Is Shadow Of What It Once Was". The New York Times. 6 September 1994. Retrieved 18 April 2017.
- ^ "FONTANA: California Steel Industries weathered recession with no-layoff policy". The Press-Enterprise. 10 October 2014. Retrieved 18 April 2017.
- ^ "FONTANA: California Steel returns to profitability". The Press-Enterprise. 22 February 2011. Retrieved 18 April 2017.
- ^ "California Steel Industries Invests $100 Million In Fontana, California, Plant Expansion". Area Development. 31 July 2012. Retrieved 18 April 2017.
- ^ "Nucor Acquires Majority Ownership of California Steel Industries". Nucor. 13 December 2021. Retrieved 16 December 2021.