Several hundred former Sparrows Point workers gathering late Monday afternoon for details of their steel mill's demise heard from union leaders that at least two groups had wanted to restart the plant but weren't given the chance.
Mr Joe Rosel president of United Steelworkers Local 9477 in Sparrows Point told the crowd that Sherman International, an iron and steel equipment supplier in Pittsburgh, wanted to operate the plant and tried to bid USD 150 million for it last week. Mr Rosel said that "They were told they couldn't bid because the plant wasn't for sale anymore."
Instead, Hilco Trading, one of the two companies that bought Sparrows Point for USD 72.5 million in an August bankruptcy auction, sold the plant's most valuable steelmaking asset to Nucor, a Charlotte, NC based steelmaker, reportedly for spare parts.
Mr Rosel said that another group led by a former executive with steelmaker Severstal, which once owned Sparrows Point also was working to put a deal together but wasn't able to submit a bid before the opportunity was unexpectedly taken away. Hilco originally set Dec. 21 as the bid deadline, with an auction in January.
He said that the second potential bidder, working with the Seaport Group, a New York investment bank, wanted to purchase several of the plant's mills and employ perhaps 1,000 people. About 2,000 worked at Sparrows Point when then owner RG Steel filed for bankruptcy in May, rapidly idling the plant.
About 300 laid-off steelworkers packed into a union hall on Dundalk Avenue for the meeting, some to rage, some to mourn and some just hoping for a few more scraps of information about pensions, unemployment insurance and the rest of the thin replacements for their pay and benefits.
Some workers had anticipated that Sparrows Point would close. But plenty couldn't believe they'd lived to see this day.
