Sharon Steel Corporation - Sharon Steel Hoop Company

Sharon Steel Hoop Company

In the same year that the American Steel and Wire Company and the American Sheet and Tin Plate Company organized to buy and use the products of the Carnegie Plant, the Sharon Steel Hoop Company came into being. this company was organized by Morris Bachman, and was incorporated on October 8, 1900. The new company proceeded immediately to purchase a site of land along the Shenango River, south of Sharon, and started an 8” and 9” hot mill to roll cooperage hoop, cotton ties, and narrow steel bands.

The location of the Sharon Steel Hoop Company being immediately adjacent to the Sharon Steel Company, later the Farrell Works of the Carnegie Steel Company, made it feasible for the new company to purchase its requirements of simi-finished steel from the mill located so near. When the original Sharon Steel Company was acquired later by the United States Steel Corporation, and a new contract for billets could not be negotiated, it became necessary for the Sharon Steel Hoop Company to produce its own open hearth steel. Thus, in 1902, the “Steel Hoop” inaugurated a building program which included four 35-ton open hearth furnaces, a blooming mill, and a bar mill on which billets would be rolled to be converted into bands on the 8” and 9” mills. In 1905, a fifth open hearth furnace was added, and a 10” hot strip mill was brought into production, In 1906, the company built and operated the first continuous pickling and galvanizing unit ever built in the United States.

During Mr. Bachman's term as president, the company earned a favorable reputation as a producer of cooperage hoop, and established connections with customers,who, fifty yars later, are still buying this same type of material from the Sharon Steel Corporation. The death of Mr. Bachman, which occurred in 1910, was a serious shock to the organization, and his friends, as well as to those who were connected with the company.

The successor to Mr. Bachman was Mr. Severn P. Ker, who had many years of experience in the commercial side of the steel industry. Under Mr. Ker's direction, the company continued to increase its capacity and to extend its operations. In 1910, a sixth open hearth furnace was built, and a 14” band mill was added to the production line. In 1913, another open hearth furnace and certain auxiliary equipment were added, which raised the annual capacity of the company to 180,000 tons of open hearth ingots.

In 1917 the Sharon Steel Hoop Company expanded by buying the Youngstown Iron and Steel Company, with a steel plant at Lowellville, and sheet mills in Youngstown. The newly purchased Lowellville Works was equipped with four open hearths, several soaking pits, a blooming mill, and bar mill, and the Youngstown Plant with eight sheet mills, a jobbing mill, and a 72” plate mill. The Sharon Steel Hoop Company also acquired the Mary Furnace from the Ohio Iron and Steel Company to secure a source of pig iron supply for the Lowellville Plant, and added to the Mary Plant two new open hearth furnaces, a 34” reversing blooming mill, and a 21&$#148; bar mill, These improvements made it possible to abandon the now obsolete steel making facilities and blooming mill at the Sharon Works in 1920.

To convert some of its material into fabricated products, the Youngstown Pressed Steel Company was organized as a subsidiary of the Sharon Steel Hoop Company in November, 1917. This company operated departments at Youngstown and Sharon until it was moved to Warren, Ohio, where it carried on a general stamping business throughout the succeeding years.