TimkenSteel Canton Steel Mill Celebrates 100 Years of Operation

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): TimkenSteel, initially started as the steel business of The Timken Roller Bearing Company, has completed over 100 years of successful steelmaking operations. The continuous improvement achieved through timely transitions and innovations has made the company a leader in steelmaking, who supplies critical steel products for world’s most demanding applications across the globe.

The company had opened its first steel-piercing mill in Canton, OH in 1915. In the very next year, it installed four 5-ton electric furnaces in its new plant on Harrison Avenue. The plant became fully operational in 1917. After nearly two years of continuous research, the company started selling high-performance alloy steel to other manufacturers in 1920. After four year, it developed nickel-molybdenum steel to replace chrome-nickel steel. TimkenSteel announced installation of three large electric furnaces and a 100-ton open hearth furnace in 1927.

The first acquisition by the company took place in 1928, when it acquired Wooster,OH-based Weldless Tube Company.

Later in 1952, the company moved all production to electric furnaces. The notable milestone in the company’s history was the addition of two vacuum degrassers in 1962 and 1965 respectively. 1968 saw the addition of a continuous caster at the Harrison Steel Plant. In order to expand specialty steels production, the company acquired Latrobe, PA-based Latrobe Steel Company in 1975. In the year 1998, a new rolling mill was completed at the Harrison Steel Plant. It also opened a small-bar rolling mill at the plant in 2008.

In a bid to focus on special bar quality steel, the company divested the earlier acquired Latrobe Steel Company in 2006.