AK Steel to get new name
AK Steel's name will be changed to reflect its new Ohio-based owners, Cleveland-Cliffs, despite earlier assurances that the name would not change.
When Cleveland-Cliffs, the country's largest producer of iron ore pellets, acquired AK Steel in early 2020, the company said in a news release that AK Steel would retain its branding.
But in the company's year-end report, it noted that AK Steel and another company, ArcelorMittal USA, are being “vertically integrated” into Cleveland-Cliffs.
AK Steel acquired Armco in 1999.
Armco acquired the Columbia Steel Wheel plant in Butler County and became known as Armco's “Butler Works.”Cleveland-Cliffs, headquartered in Cleveland, employs about 25,000 people across its mining, steel and downstream manufacturing operations in the United States and Canada. The deals made Cleveland-Cliffs the largest flat-rolled steel producer in North America, according to the company.Vertical integration is the combination in one company of two or more stages of production normally operated by separate companies.Cleveland-Cliffs couldn't be reached for comment.The purchase of AK Steel was announced in December 2019, and Cleveland-Cliffs acquired AK Steel for $1.1 billion in issued and outstanding shares of AK Steel stock.AK Steel's Butler plant employs about 1,400 hourly and salaried workers and has 1,469 retirees and 562 surviving spouses.A news release said the new company will produce “high-value iron ore and steel solutions to customers primarily across North America.”
