Columbia Steel Company

For the company in Portland, Oregon, see Columbia Steel Casting Company.

Columbia Steel Company was an American steel company, established around 1909 with a plant in Pittsburg, California.[a] The company was acquired by U.S. Steel in 1930 and later merged with Geneva Steel to form U.S. Steel's Columbia-Geneva Steel Division. In 1986, U.S. Steel created USS-POSCO Industries as a joint venture with Pohang Iron and Steel Company to run the Pittsburg facility. U.S. Steel announced the closure of the Pittsburg plant in 2022.

History

Molten steel at the company's Pittsburg plant c. 1933

Columbia Steel Company was established around 1909, opening a plant in Pittsburg, California.[a] Iron Trade Review reported in 1917 that the company operated two plants—one in Pittsburg and another in Portland, Oregon.[1]

In early 1923, the company was reorganized as the Columbia Steel Corporation of San Francisco.[2][4] Later that year, the company acquired a facility from Llewellyn Iron Works in Torrance, California.[5]

Columbia Steel became a subsidiary of U.S. Steel in 1930.[2] The company served as a contractor in the construction of the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge in the 1930s.[3]

The company expanded during World War II but faced a sharp decline in steel production after the end of the wartime manufacturing boom.[2]

Columbia Steel faced a lawsuit from the federal government over its plans to acquire the Consolidated Steel Corporation. The Supreme Court decided in the company's favor in 1948.[6][7]

In 1952, Columbia Steel merged with Geneva Steel to form U.S. Steel's Columbia-Geneva Steel Division. The division was dissolved in 1964.[8]

In 1986, U.S. Steel entered into a joint venture with Pohang Iron and Steel Company to run its plant in Pittsburg, creating USS-POSCO Industries (UPI).[3]

U.S. Steel regained sole ownership of UPI in 2020. The company announced in 2022 that the Pittsburg facility would be shut down the following year.[9][10]

Notes

  1. ^ a b A 1917 Iron Trade Review article states that the company was organized in 1909, with offices in San Francisco, as a successor to a prior company in Portland, Oregon.[1] Other sources give the company's date of establishment as 1908[2] or 1910.[3]

References

  1. ^ a b "Steel Foundry on the Pacific Coast". Iron Trade Review. Vol. 61, no. 12. September 20, 1917. p. 597 – via Archive.org.
  2. ^ a b c d Aiello, Marti (2004). "Columbia Geneva Steel". Pittsburg. Arcadia Publishing. p. 61. ISBN 0-7385-2904-4 – via Archive.org.
  3. ^ a b c Christopher Heredia (March 5, 1999). "Men of steel / For five generations, a Pittsburg family forges life at the mill". SFGate. Retrieved November 16, 2025.
  4. ^ "Columbia Steel Corporation, San Francisco". The Commercial and Financial Chronicle. Vol. 116, no. 3004. January 20, 1923. p. 301 – via Archive.org.
  5. ^ "Columbia Steel Purchases Torrance, Cal. Plant". Iron Trade Review. Vol. 72, no. 16. April 19, 1923. p. 1135 – via Archive.org.
  6. ^ United States v. Columbia Steel Co., 334 U.S. 495 (1948).
  7. ^ C. Paul Rogers III (2013). "A Concise History of Corporate Mergers and the Antitrust Laws in the United States". National Law School of India Review. 24 (2): 15. JSTOR 44283759.
  8. ^ "Geneva Steel: Through the years". Deseret News. February 10, 2004. Retrieved November 16, 2025.
  9. ^ "East Bay lawmakers push to keep USS-Posco steel mill in Pittsburg open". CBS News. November 10, 2023. Retrieved November 16, 2025.
  10. ^ Judith Prieve (January 20, 2024). "End of a Bay Area era? Pittsburg's steel mill idles amid sale to Japanese company". SiliconValley.com. Retrieved November 16, 2025.

Further reading

  • Media related to Columbia Steel Company at Wikimedia Commons
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