Lukens Steel Company
Lukens Steel Company, located in Coatesville, Pennsylvania, is the oldest iron mill in commission within the United States.
Isaac Pennock established The Federal Slitting Mill in 1793 on Buck Run, a tributary of Brandywine Creek about four miles south of Coatesville, Pennsylvania.
[1] After receiving a loan in 1810, Pennock went into a partnership with Jesse Kersey to form Brandywine Iron Works and Nail Factory.
[2] 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.
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.
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.
[10] Sales offices began to open all over, including Baltimore, Boston, Cincinnati, New Orleans and New York City.
During World War I the company lost money but returned into good fortune in 1929 with a net income of $876,563 on sales nearing $20.4 million.
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.
[12] 1970 brought completed construction of a $12.8 million strand casting facility that produced steel slabs faster and reduced handling costs.
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%.
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 carriers, at the time the largest warships in the world.
The mill supplied alloy plate steel for projects like the Army's Abrams tank and the Navy's Aegis class cruisers, ballistic missiles and submarines.
Nonunion workers were hired to perform duties not directly tied to making steel along with salaried employees kept the mill running.
Washington gave Lukens enough volume to rationalize building a new rolling mill in Conshohocken, Pa adaptable to stainless and carbon products.
New chairmen and CEO R.W Van Sant sold Flex-O-Light producer of highway safety products, Ludlow-Saylor division, South Central Florida Express, Inc. in 1994 and Energy Coating Co to Dresser Industries Inc in 1995, which brought Lukens $70 million.
[17] In early 2015, during the restoration of a home that once belonged to Rebecca Lukens, a trove of business correspondence from 1834 was found inside the walls.
[18] On September 28, 2020, Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. entered into a definitive agreement[19] to acquire the United States steel mill interests of ArcelorMittal,[20] including Lukens.
