Idled Ohio steel mill nears dismantling process

A steel rolling mill in northeastern Ohio that has been operated by McDonald Steel since the early 1980s and United States Steel Corp. before that has been purchased by a company that specializes in dismantling vacant industrial facilities.

The mill is located in McDonald, Ohio, in Trumbull County, and reports from the Youngstown, Ohio, area indicate the county auditor’s office has recorded a $3.2 million transaction for the sale of the 650,000-square-foot structure and surrounding land.

Reports list the buyer, Applied Partners LLC Corp., as being based in New Jersey, and the company has a largely dormant LinkedIn page that lists Ravenwood, West Virginia, as its home.

Applied Partners says it is in the business of identifying, analyzing, capitalizing, harvesting and monetizing commodity assets from industrial structures. The Ravenswood connection likely comes from Applied Partners’ involvement in the dismantling of the former Century Aluminum primary smelter complex in that West Virginia town.

According to a 2017 report from the West Virginia Press Association, Applied Partners purchased the 1,800-acre Century site for $15 million.

About five years later, county and state officials announced that two companies owned by Berkshire Hathaway, BHE Renewables and Precision Castparts Corp., intended to develop a titanium products manufacturing and solar energy site on the land.

In Ohio, Applied Partners seems poised to undertake a similar if smaller scale project, with the McDonald plant situated on 52 acres as opposed to the 1,800 at the Ravenswood site.

“We’re pleased that this sale has taken place not only because it provides significant financial flexibility to McDonald Steel Corp., but also because it means that rather than becoming another deteriorating industrial facility, the site will become a vibrant center of economic growth in our community," McDonald Steel President James M. Grasso says in a report from WKBN in Youngstown.

“Applied Partners has successfully redeveloped decommissioned industrial properties across the country, and we’re confident that success will be repeated in McDonald.”

According to a previous news release, Applied Partners has purchased properties formerly owned by Dana, Chrysler, NAPCO, Eaton, General Motors, Delphi, North American Rockwell as well as Century Aluminum, WKBN says.

The rolling mill in McDonald was operated by U.S. Steel between 1918 and 1979. It received new life thanks to a regional investment group from 1981 until being idled early this year.

McDonald Steel continues to operate a steel plate and shapes mill in Cleveland it acquired last year, formerly known as General Steel, that specializes in part in products for the rail industry, according to its website.

Although no timetable has been disclosed for the dismantling and demolition of the mill, a source quoted by The Vindicator says Applied Partners is is preparing now to dismantle the structure.