General Steel Industries
 |
|
| Industry |
Foundry Steel Manufacturing Defense |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1928 as General Steel Castings Corporation |
| Defunct | 1981 |
| Headquarters | Eddystone, Pennsylvania (1928 - 1948) Granite City, Illinois (1948 - 1970?) St. Louis, Missouri (1970? - 1981) |
General Steel Industries, Inc. (GSI) was an American steel company founded as General Steel Castings Corporation in 1928. The company's first headquarters were in Eddystone, Pennsylvania and, prior to completing its own modern steel foundry in 1930, acquired the operations of the Commonwealth Steel Company, a critical supplier to the rail industry.
An acquisition program to diversify from its core steel castings business of manufacturing large steel castings was initiated in the late 1950s and resulted in six divisions and one subsidiary by 1971. The broader business portfolio allowed GSI to close the Castings Division, the company's only business prior to diversification, in 1973.
In 1974, GSI was operating 19 plants across the United States and internationally and continued operating as an independent company until it was acquired by Lukens Steel in 1981.
In 1929, General Steel Castings Corp. acquired the Commonwealth Steel Company, a Granite City, Illinois based maker of steel, steel castings, and railroad supplies that had been founded in 1901 and had become a supplier to railroad companies. Commonwealth Steel had manufactured large cast steel bolsters for passenger cars for exhibit at the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair and designed and produced a one-piece locomotive bed in 1926. By 1928 "practically all locomotives and passenger cars built in the United States" were using Commonwealth products. General Steel's purchase of Commonwealth included Commonwealth's foundry and its new General Office Building, completed in 1926, both located at 1417 State Street, Granite City, Illinois. After the Commonwealth Steel acquisition, General Steel had two divisions, the Eddystone Division in Pennsylvania and the Commonwealth Division in Illinois. Only the Commonwealth Division was operational; the Eddystone Division's plant would not be completed until 1930. The Illinois operation was commonly referred to as the "Commonwealth" and was located at 1417 State Street in Granite City. During World War II, the Commonwealth plant manufactured steel for armor and cast steel tank hulls and turrets and employed approximately 5,200 people. After the war, the company returned to manufacturing locomotive castings in Granite City and earth-moving equipment in Eddystone.
Fortune magazine ranked the company 464, 481, and 441 in the magazine's Fortune 500 listing in 1962, 1963, and 1964, respectively. Employees numbered 3,650 in 1962, 4,200 in 1963, and 4,400 in 1964.
In 1948, the company's headquarters was moved from Eddystone to Granite City. In the mid-1950s, the company expanded its focus from steel castings products to a more diversified company through an acquisition program that included purchasing National Roll & Foundry Company in 1955,St. Louis Car Company in June 1960, Ludlow-Saylor Wire Cloth, Flex-O-Lite, Standard Pipeprotection, and Simplicity Engineering Corporation. Standard Pipeprotection Division was created from a series of acquisitions.
...
Wikipedia