Burns Harbor Steel Plant, Indiana

Burns Harbor is the easternmost of the three large steel mills on the shore of Lake Michigan. This was the last large integrated steel plant to be made in the U.S.A., built from scratch by Bethlehem Steel in 1964. It has the capacity to produce around 5 million tons of raw steel per year. It was the company’s attempt to compete with the other old steel companies that were prospering along the Lake Shore, with water access for the bulk materials for steel: coal, limestone, and iron ore. The plant has two blast furnaces, as well as two, 82-oven coke batteries. Sheds contain plate and strip mills, coating lines, annealing and tempering mills, and other treatment facilities. It provides steel to the automobile, tube, pipe, shipbuilding, drum, appliance, HVAC, tank, and rail car-making industries. Bankrupt Bethlehem Steel was bought by ISG for $1.5 billion in 2003, and Mittal bought ISG for $4.5 billion in 2004. So like the big mill at Indiana Harbor, Burns Harbor is also owned by ArcelorMittal, the largest steel company in the world, based in Luxembourg.