Birmingham Steel Corp. of Birmingham, Ala., has given Charter Manufacturing Inc., a mini-mill in Mequon, Wis., until Feb. 28 the rights to purchase American Steel & Wire, the special bar quality division that has been idle since June 2001. Birmingham's plan to sell the Cleveland-based subsidiary to Sidenor, a bar producer based in Bilbao, Spain, fell apart late last year.

Norsk Hydro, the Norwegian oil and energy, light metals, and fertilizer giant, has established Hydro Aluminum North America, a new business unit, in Baltimore. Martin Carter, formerly senior vice president of corporate strategy for Norsk Hydro, was named president of the new unit and will report to Norsk Hydro light metals in Oslo.

Steel rebar producer AmeriSteel of Tampa has added a fifth plant and brought annual capacity to 2.4 million tons/year with the purchase of the Cartersville, Ga., mini-mill formerly owned by Alabama-based Birmingham Steel Corp. AmeriSteel is owned by Gerdau, the Brazilian steel company, and accounts for 40% of the parent's annual output.