ArcelorMittal, the hot mill at Weirton, W. Va. has been winterized and mothballed until slabs are needed for conversion to coils at this and other major flat-rolled mills. ArcelorMittal now is shipping slabs from its Sparrows Point, Md. plant, to the Indiana Harbor plant in East Chicago, Ind. Slabs also are going to the East Chicago, Weirton and Cleveland plants from the hot mill in Cleveland. However, the Weirton hot mill eventually should be back in operation. ArcelorMittal must sell the Sparrows Point plant under a consent agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice regarding concentration of ownership of tinplate production in the eastern part of North America.

Ohio economic development officials are still waiting to find out if a Russian steelmaker will put a mill in the Ohio River town of Haverhill. Russian billionaire Victor Rashnikov, who controls Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works, has been considering building a $1 billion mill in Haverhill. He toured a site with Gov. Ted Strickland in September, and development officials had hoped for a decision before year's end. A 600-acre site suitable for a steel mill is adjacent to a $230 million coke plant expansion that would enable Sun Coke Energy to double production to a million tons a year.

Warren Steel closed 2007 producing test lots of about 4,000 tons/month of semi-finished round carbon and low-alloy steel bars for potential customers at the northeast Ohio site of the former CSC plant and its predecessor, Copperweld Steel. The bars will be used to make seamless tubing or reheated for forgings. Ron Bidula, plant manager, says the mill's output at capacity could be 800,000 tons/year. Warren Steel is owned by the Privat Group from the Ukraine, which teamed with a private investor from Miami to buy the electric furnace melt shop in bankruptcy liquidation and form the new company.

ArcelorMittal, the world's largest steelmaker, became the first foreign corporation to purchase a Chinese steel company when it spent $1.8 billion to absorb China Oriental Group. However, the landmark deal came at the same time the Chinese government refused to give the go-ahead for Arcelor Mittal's bid (announced in February 2006) to take over Laiwu Steel. China in the past year has issued regulations that forbid foreign companies from taking a controlling stake in Chinese state-owned companies. But, China Oriental is a Bermuda-registered and Hong Kong-listed private company and isn't subject to those regulations.