[4] Operating as Armco Worldwide Grinding System, it was sold in 1993 to GS Technologies which then became GST Steel Company.
[6][7] The closing of the company (plant) drew considerable attention in the 2012 U.S. Presidential election because of scrutiny of the business dealings of Mitt Romney who had founded Bain Capital which had acquired controlling interest of GST Steel in 1993 for $24.5 million.
Employees noted that Bain had loaded the company with debt while earning profits ($58.4 million).
[8] During the 2012 U.S. Presidential election laid off plant worker Joe Soptic was featured in an advertisement against Romney claiming that his wife died of cancer after he lost his health insurance in the closing.
And a short time after that my wife became ill." An investigation by The Washington Post showed that Soptic's wife had died of cancer in 2006 five years after the plant closed and that she had her own health insurance at the time of the closing but lost it after she left that job in 2002.