| Former type | Public |
|---|---|
| Industry | Steel |
| Successor | LTV Steel |
| Founded | Youngstown, Ohio, 1899 |
| Defunct | 1984 |
| Headquarters | Cleveland, Ohio |
| Products | Steel |
Republic Steel was once the third largest steel producer in the United States.
The Republic Iron and Steel Company was founded in Youngstown, Ohio in 1899.
In 1927, Cyrus S. Eaton acquired and combined Republic with several other small steel companies, with the goal of becoming large enough to rival the United States Steel Corporation. The newly named Republic Steel Corporation was headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio and became America's third largest steel company, trailing only U.S. Steel and Bethlehem Steel after acquiring Bourne-Fuller Steel and the Central Alloy Steel Company located in Massillon, Ohio in the 1930s.[1]
Tom M. Girdler became the first board chairman. Eaton hired Girdler from Jones and Laughlin Steel Corp., where he had served as president. Girdler used scientists to modernize Republic Steel with the introduction of better alloys such as "light steel". During World War II while still chairman of Republic Steel, Girdler relocated to California to serve as CEO of Consolidated Aircraft, the nation's leading warplane manufacturer. Following the war, he left Consolidated, taking with him Everett Dyer, Consoldiated's top B-24 test pilot, to run Republic's aviation department.
Although relations improved after World War II, Republic Steel was known for its labor problems during the Depression. On Memorial Day, May 26, 1937, a strike escalated into the Memorial Day massacre of 1937, in which Chicago police fired into an unarmed group of protesters, and killed ten outright. [1] This was documented by the 1937 short film Republic Steel Strike Riot Newsreel Footage. CEO Girdler never signed the labor contract.
Thomas Patton, a private attorney who worked on the merger that formed Republic Steel was hired in 1936 to form Republic's internal legal department. As general counsel in the 1930s and 1940s, he negotiated with workers on behalf of management during the steel strikes. He went on to become president, then chief executive and chairman.
Republic Steel was one of the last major steel firms to use low-phosphorus Adirondack magnetites, operating the Chateaugay Ore & Iron Company in Lyon Mountain, New York from 1939 to 1967. The Chateaugay mine was one of the deepest commercial iron ore mines in the United States, with stopes as much as 3,500 feet (1,050 m) below the surface.
Republic Steel remained prosperous until the 1970s, when rising foreign imports, labor costs, and other factors caused severe stress at Republic and throughout the steel industry in the U.S.
In 1984, Republic merged into the Jones and Laughlin Steel subsidiary of the LTV Corporation, with the new entity being known as LTV Steel.
In December 2001, LTV filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, and a few months later International Steel Group purchased LTV.
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