Cleveland-Cliffs purchases Armco-Kawasaki (Henry Ford) Steel plant
There has been little comment here about the apparent change in ownership of Henry Ford’s oeiginal steel plant. Albert Kahn helped design the facility in 1926 and it was operated by Ford until 1989. Ford was financially challenged at that time and sold or spun off many of its assets. The Dearborn still mill became Rouge Steel but that firm got into serious financial trouble. In 2004, the plant was sold to Alexey Mordashu, a Russian steel entrepreneur who runs the Servastal international steel firm. Mordashou invested heavily in modernizing the plant and, by 2010 or so, it was one of the most efficient and productive steel plants in the county. In 2014, Morgodushu sold the plant for $700 million to the former Armco Steel from Hamilton, Ohio which has become Armco-Kawasaki Steel Now, it appears that Armco-Kawasaki sold the mill to Cleveland-Cliffs. That is an old Cleveland firm dating from before the days of the Sault-Ste-Marie canals. They own iron ore mines and ships. They are also building a new plant in Toledo to refine a more efficient type of iron product for the production of steel. Does anyone know what Cleveland-Cliffs has in mind for Henry Ford’s former steel mills? Does anyone know what Cleveland-Cliffs paid for this historic steel production plant?
