Lukens Steel Company
Encyclopedia
Lukens Steel Company is located in Coatesville
Coatesville, Pennsylvania
Coatesville is the only city in Chester County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 13,100 at the 2010 census. Coatesville is approximately 39 miles west of Philadelphia....

, Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...

. Lukens is the oldest steel mill in commission within the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. In 1995 it was one of the three largest producers of plate steel and the largest domestic manufacturer of alloy-plate. It is ranked fourth out of 24 public steel corporations in profitability earning 14.8% equity five years in a row. The company produces carbon, alloy
Alloy
An alloy is a mixture or metallic solid solution composed of two or more elements. Complete solid solution alloys give single solid phase microstructure, while partial solutions give two or more phases that may or may not be homogeneous in distribution, depending on thermal history...

, and clad
Cladding (metalworking)
Cladding is the bonding together of dissimilar metals. It is distinct from welding or gluing as a method to fasten the metals together. Cladding is often achieved by extruding two metals through a die as well as pressing or rolling sheets together under high pressure.The United States Mint uses...

 steel plates along with stainless steel
Stainless steel
In metallurgy, stainless steel, also known as inox steel or inox from French "inoxydable", is defined as a steel alloy with a minimum of 10.5 or 11% chromium content by mass....

 sheets, strips, plates, hot bands, and slabs.

18th and 19th Centuries

Isaac Pennock established The Federal Slitting Mill in 1793 on Buck Run, a stream about four miles south of Coatesville, Pennsylvania
Coatesville, Pennsylvania
Coatesville is the only city in Chester County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 13,100 at the 2010 census. Coatesville is approximately 39 miles west of Philadelphia....

. After receiving a loan in 1810, Pennock went into a partnership with Jesse Kersey to form Brandywine Iron Works and Nail Factory. Kersey’s father-in-law was Moses Coates, a member of the founding family of Coatesville. After seven years as partners, Pennock bought Kersey’s share of the business and then leased it to his son-in-law, Dr. Charles Lloyd Lukens. The following year the mill became the first in the United States to produce boilerplates and soon joined the shipbuilding industry. In 1818, Lukens produced the iron for the first iron-hull vessel in the United States.

Dr. Charles Lloyd Lukens died in 1825, leaving the steel mill to his wife Rebecca Lukens. This inheritance made Rebecca Lukens
Rebecca Lukens
Rebecca Lukens born Rebecca Webb Pennock was the owner and manager of the iron and steel mill which became the Lukens Steel Company of Coatesville, Pennsylvania...

 the first woman in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 to be a part of the iron industry. She was also the first female chief executive officer of an industrial company. She became a huge icon for the steel mill when she saved it from bankruptcy by making the company the nation’s chief producer of boilerplates
Sheet metal
Sheet metal is simply metal formed into thin and flat pieces. It is one of the fundamental forms used in metalworking, and can be cut and bent into a variety of different shapes. Countless everyday objects are constructed of the material...

. They were sent to England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 to be used in some of the first railway locomotives.

When Rebecca retired in 1847 she became a silent partner with Abraham Gibbons, who was one of her sons-in-law, and was the sole manager of the mill. The company was known as A. Gibbons and Company. The following year Gibbons took on his brother-in-law, Dr. Charles Huston as a partner. Dr. Huston was also one of Rebecca’s sons-in-law. In 1849 the men renamed the mill Gibbons and Huston. Gibbons had married Rebecca’s oldest daughter Martha, while Dr. Charles Huston married the youngest Isabella. Not long after, Gibbons left the family business to become a co-founder of The Bank of Chester Valley. After Gibbons left, Isabella took the role as senior partner through her mother’s estate. She also bought her sister Martha’s share. Huston went on to build a new steam powered mill in 1870. During 1881 the company started to produce steel and iron and changed the name from Gibbons and Huston to Charles Huston and Sons. After Rebecca passed away Isabella and Charles changed the name to Lukens Rolling Mill. With all the changes another mill had to be built in 1890 making the company the largest mill in the United States. Within the same year the mill changed from a family partnership to a corporation, converting the name to Lukens Iron and Steel.

Several years later in 1897 Dr. Huston died leaving the company to his sons, Abram Francis Huston who became president of the company and Charles Lukens Huston who became works manager. By 1882 Charles Lukens Huston made it a part of his daily routine to go around the mill and meet all the employees and was proud to be able to greet them by name. He also performed sermons to the men and women that worked and wanted to listen. Sales offices began to open all over, including Baltimore
Baltimore
Baltimore is the largest independent city in the United States and the largest city and cultural center of the US state of Maryland. The city is located in central Maryland along the tidal portion of the Patapsco River, an arm of the Chesapeake Bay. Baltimore is sometimes referred to as Baltimore...

, Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...

, Cincinnati, New Orleans and New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

. Not long after the opening the mill became the largest producer of open-hearth steel and steel plates on the Eastern side of the United States.

20th Century

In 1903 Lukens had a new addition put on a steam-driven mill and that produced 136 inch wide steel plates. These were the largest plates being created in the United States. During 1917 the company adjusted the name again to Lukens Steel Company. Continuing through the year Lukens started to produce 204 inch steel plates making it the creator of the World’s largest plate. Two years later the plates increased another two inches to 206, staying at the World’s largest plate mill for over 40 years.

In 1925 Abram Huston's son-in-law, Robert Wolcott, took his place as president of the mill. During World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

 the company lost money but returned back into good fortune in 1929 with a net income of $876,563 on sales nearing $20.4 million. Wolcott pushed the company through the tough times of The Great Depression. Production rates fell from 446,774 tons to 165,731 tons. Wolcott made a lot of cost reductions, intensive sales, and additional services such as partial fabrications before shipment in attempt to save the company. In 1930 the clad plate, which includes permanent bonding of two or more different metals that protects against rust, corrosion and abrasion, was brought to the production line. This gave Lukens the biggest inclusive line of clad
Cladding (metalworking)
Cladding is the bonding together of dissimilar metals. It is distinct from welding or gluing as a method to fasten the metals together. Cladding is often achieved by extruding two metals through a die as well as pressing or rolling sheets together under high pressure.The United States Mint uses...

 steel in the business.

1937 led to an agreement with the Steel Workers Organization Committee. They accommodated the union members for a compromised agreement pertaining to wages, hours and benefits. By 1940 the company’s debt was reduced and it was ready to prepare for the incoming demands of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

. The U.S. Navy
United States Navy
The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...

 built a finishing mill that Lukens leased and operated to meet the demands. They named a Liberty ship
Liberty ship
Liberty ships were cargo ships built in the United States during World War II. Though British in conception, they were adapted by the U.S. as they were cheap and quick to build, and came to symbolize U.S. wartime industrial output. Based on vessels ordered by Britain to replace ships torpedoed by...

 after Rebecca Lukens. When 1944 rolled around the employment reached a record high of 6,166. As the war came to a close the profits hit a new record of $2.8 million, net sales hit $61.5 million and production of steel was at 578,461 tons. In 1949 Wolcott was succeed by Charles Lukens Huston, Jr. making him the 5th generation to own the company.

The greatest production of steel was in 1953 when the mill produced 763,461 tons. Net sales reached $130.5 million and income at $10.2 million in 1957. A year later a new steel producing facility was built surrounding a 100-ton electric furnace. The Coatesville mill now covered 725 acres (293.4 ha) and 3250000 square feet (301,934.9 m²) of building space.

1970 brought completed construction of a $12.8 million strand casting facility that produced steel slabs faster and reduced handling costs. By 1974 production of raw steel reach 958,000 tons and net sales reached $283.4 million. Huston Jr. retired that year ending the family dynasty since 1810. The following year the mill equipped four enormous electric furnaces that phased out the open-hearth furnaces. Economic problems hit the company hard in the late 70’s. High energy costs, interest rates, and employment costs as well as competition from other metals and cheap imported material put a decrease on net income from 4.2% to 1.3% and plates sales dropped from 11% to 8%.

W.R. Wilson became president and chief executive officer in 1981. Also in 1981, Lukens acquired General Steel Industries Inc.
General Steel Industries
General Steel Industries, Inc., or GSI, was an American steel company originally founded as General Steel Castings Corporation in 1928.The company was initially headquartered in Eddystone, Pennsylvania and, prior to completing its own modern steel foundry in 1930, acquired the operations of the...

, a producer of steel, crushing and conveying machinery, reflective highway signs, and protective coats for oil and gas pipelines, for $66 million. The company also bought 3.6 miles of railroad from Consolidated Rail Corp called Brandywine Valley Railroad Co
Brandywine Valley Railroad
The Brandywine Valley Railroad is a class III railroad operating in Pennsylvania.It was established in 1981 by the Lukens Steel Company to operate trackage at Coatesville, Pennsylvania and the neighboring town of Modena...

. The next year, Lukens would make two small purchases each year and one large every three years with non-steel productions. That same year steel was removed from the name to become Lukens Inc. From January through September 1982 in order to decrease costs the company reduced its work force by 22% and cut employee’s pay 10%.

Over the following year the mill lost $14 million putting it back into the red zone for the first time since 1938. Profit came back when Wilson cut costs by $50 million over four years. In order to do so he had to let go of half of the white-collar salaried staff. He was also able to straighten out a thirteen-year lawsuit by agreeing to pay 1,300 black workforce members $2.5 million in reimbursement and arranged to put a target to fill 18% of its hours and salary positions with black workers.

1988 earned profit a of $33.4 million on sales of $605.3 million and Lukens sold Canadian Lukens. The company won the largest single order in history. It consisted of a $74 million contract to supply carbon and military alloy plates over five years to be used in construction of two Nimitz-class nuclear aircraft carrier
Aircraft carrier
An aircraft carrier is a warship designed with a primary mission of deploying and recovering aircraft, acting as a seagoing airbase. Aircraft carriers thus allow a naval force to project air power worldwide without having to depend on local bases for staging aircraft operations...

s. They were then used to target warships in the world. By the next year the company hit a record profit of $41.5 million on sales of $644.9 million. Military orders turned the company around once again. The mill supplied alloy plate steel for projects like the Army’s Abrams tank and the Navy’s Aegis class cruiser
Ticonderoga class cruiser
The Ticonderoga class of missile cruisers is a class of warships in the United States Navy, first ordered and authorized in FY 1978. The class uses phased-array radar and was originally planned as a class of destroyers...

s, ballistic missile
Ballistic missile
A ballistic missile is a missile that follows a sub-orbital ballistic flightpath with the objective of delivering one or more warheads to a predetermined target. The missile is only guided during the relatively brief initial powered phase of flight and its course is subsequently governed by the...

s and submarine
Submarine
A submarine is a watercraft capable of independent operation below the surface of the water. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability...

s.

Around October 1991 a walkout over financial and healthcare issues caused 1,200 plus workers at Lukens to unite at the Coatesville mill. The workers wanted to eliminate contracting out. Nonunion workers were hired to perform duties not directly tied to making steel along with salaried employees kept the mill running. About 85% of the normal production was kept going during the 105-day walkout that ended with the strikers not getting what they wanted.

In 1992, Lukens purchased Washington Steel Corporation
Washington Steel Corporation
Washington Steel Corporation was a highly successful post-war stainless steel production company, located in Washington, Pennsylvania. Washington Steel was the first U.S. company to use a Sendzimir Mill, invented by Polish inventor Tadeusz Sendzimir to cold-roll stainless steel.Washington Steel...

 for $273.7 million. Washington gave Lukens enough volume to rationalize building a new rolling mill in Conshohocken, Pa adaptable to stainless and carbon products. This system was called Steck Mill Advanced Rolling Technology (SMART). The SMART technology was able to produce stainless coil plates up to 102 inches when the former limit was 60 inches.

New chairmen and CEO R.W Van Sant sold Flex-O-Light producer of highway safety products, Ludlow-Saylor division, South Central Railroad Co in 1994 and Energy Coating Co to Dresser Industries Inc in 1995, which brought Lukens $70 million. Producing raw steel from an electric-arc furnace at the Coatesville plant produced 70% of their slabs. The Washington Stainless Group including the Washington Steel Corp’s melting, continuous casting and hot-rolling facilities in Houston, Pa and the rolling and finishing facilities were in Washington, Pa
Washington, Pennsylvania
Washington is a city in and the county seat of Washington County, Pennsylvania, United States, within the Pittsburgh Metro Area in the southwestern part of the state...

.

Bethlehem Steel
Bethlehem Steel
The Bethlehem Steel Corporation , based in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, was once the second-largest steel producer in the United States, after Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania-based U.S. Steel. After a decline in the U.S...

 eventually bought Lukens in 1997 for $400 million in cash and stock.

21st Century

In 2003, International Steel Group Inc
International Steel Group
International Steel Group was a steel company headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio. In 2004 it was ranked #426 on the Fortune 500. It was created after the turn around fund, WL Ross & Co. LLC, purchased LTV Steel in February 2002...

 (ISG) bought Bethlehem for $1.5 billion. The following year ISG was bought out by Mittal Steel for $4.5 billion. In 2006 Mittal Steel and Arcelor merged to make a steel company three times the size of any other steel company for $33.6 billion. From 2006 until the present the name has remained the same.

Name Changes

  • Brandywine Iron Works and Nail Factory
  • A.Gibbons and Company
  • Gibbons and Huston
  • Charles Huston and Sons

  • Lukens Rolling Mill
  • Lukens Iron and Steel
  • Lukens Steel Company
  • Lukens Inc
  • Lukens Steel Inc
  • Bethlehem Steel
    Bethlehem Steel
    The Bethlehem Steel Corporation , based in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, was once the second-largest steel producer in the United States, after Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania-based U.S. Steel. After a decline in the U.S...

  • International Steel Group
    International Steel Group
    International Steel Group was a steel company headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio. In 2004 it was ranked #426 on the Fortune 500. It was created after the turn around fund, WL Ross & Co. LLC, purchased LTV Steel in February 2002...

  • Mittal Steel
  • ArcelorMittal

Industrial accomplishments

  • Rolled plates for the Codorus (America’s first iron hulled vessel)
  • Boilerplates
    Sheet metal
    Sheet metal is simply metal formed into thin and flat pieces. It is one of the fundamental forms used in metalworking, and can be cut and bent into a variety of different shapes. Countless everyday objects are constructed of the material...

     for riverboats in New Orleans
  • Boilerplates for Baldwin Locomotives for the Pennsylvania
    Pennsylvania Railroad
    The Pennsylvania Railroad was an American Class I railroad, founded in 1846. Commonly referred to as the "Pennsy", the PRR was headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania....

     and other Railroads
  • Fireboxes for railroad locomotives
  • Battleships armor and light tank armor for the Navy
  • Steel for the USS New Jersey
    USS New Jersey
    USS New Jersey may refer to one of the following ships of the United States Navy named after the U.S. state of New Jersey:, a battleship commissioned in 1906, decommissioned in 1920, and sunk in 1923 in bombing tests, a battleship commissioned in 1943, seeing service in World War II, Korean War,...

  • Antiaircraft-gun bases and other fabricated steel parts for the Army
  • Keel plates for the aircraft carriers USS Saratoga
    USS Saratoga
    USS Saratoga may refer to:* One of several United States Navy ships named after the Battle of Saratoga in the American Revolutionary War:** , a 18-gun sloop launched in 1780; lost at sea the following year...

    and USS Forrestal
  • Steel for the Nautilus
    Nautilus
    Nautilus is the common name of marine creatures of cephalopod family Nautilidae, the sole extant family of the superfamily Nautilaceae and of its smaller but near equal suborder, Nautilina. It comprises six living species in two genera, the type of which is the genus Nautilus...

     (first atomic-powered submarine)
  • Plates for the hull on flight decks and plane launchers on the USS Enterprise
    USS Enterprise (CVN-65)
    USS Enterprise , formerly CVA-65, is the world's first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier and the eighth US naval vessel to bear the name. Like her predecessor of World War II fame, she is nicknamed the "Big E". At , she is the longest naval vessel in the world...

    (first nuclear-powered carrier)
  • Eye bars to anchor the cables of bridges for the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge
    Verrazano-Narrows Bridge
    The Verrazano-Narrows Bridge is a double-decked suspension bridge that connects the boroughs of Staten Island and Brooklyn in New York City at the Narrows, the reach connecting the relatively protected upper bay with the larger lower bay....

     in New York harbor
  • Plates for the Throgs Neck
    Throgs Neck
    Throggs Neck is a narrow spit of land in the southeastern portion of the borough of the Bronx in New York City. It demarcates the passage between the East River , and Long Island Sound...

     in New York City

  • Plates for the Walt Whitman Bridge
    Walt Whitman Bridge
    The Walt Whitman Bridge is a green-colored single-level suspension bridge spanning the Delaware River from Philadelphia to Gloucester City, New Jersey. Named after the poet Walt Whitman, who resided in nearby Camden toward the end of his life, the Walt Whitman Bridge is one of the larger bridges...

     in Philadelphia
  • Fabricated materials for the USS Savannah
    USS Savannah
    Five ships of the United States Navy have been named USS Savannah, after the city of Savannah, Georgia. was a 1-gun galley built in 1799. was a sailing frigate launched in 1842. was a submarine tender in World War I. was a light cruiser in service during World War II...

    (first atomic-powered commercial ship)
  • Arched column supports for New York City’s World Trade Center
    World Trade Center
    The original World Trade Center was a complex with seven buildings featuring landmark twin towers in Lower Manhattan, New York City, United States. The complex opened on April 4, 1973, and was destroyed in 2001 during the September 11 attacks. The site is currently being rebuilt with five new...

     (the only thing left standing after 9/11)
  • Steel for ice-crushing bow on the USS Manhattan
    USS Manhattan
    USS Manhattan may refer to: was acquired by the Union Navy during the American Civil War and served until March 1902.*Manhattan was built in Panama in 1918 for use by the U.S. Coast Guard. was a large harbor tug serving from 1965 to 2004. Reclassified 2008 as unnamed YT-800....

    (largest in the U.S. at its time)
  • Two Nimitz-class nuclear aircraft carriers (largest warships in the world)
  • Steel for the Coulee Dam
    Grand Coulee Dam
    Grand Coulee Dam is a gravity dam on the Columbia River in the U.S. state of Washington built to produce hydroelectric power and provide irrigation. It was constructed between 1933 and 1942, originally with two power plants. A third power station was completed in 1974 to increase its energy...

  • Steel for the St. Louis Arch

External links

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