Company Overview

National Steel Corporation was founded in 1929 as a merger of Great Lakes Steel (Ecorse/River Rouge, Michigan), Weirton Steel (Weirton, West Virginia), and the Hanna Iron Ore interests. From incorporation, National operated as a fully integrated producer — iron ore, coke, blast furnace, steelmaking, and finishing — anchored by its Great Lakes Steel Division on the Michigan side of the Detroit River and its Weirton Steel Division on the Ohio River in West Virginia’s northern panhandle.

Through the mid-20th century, National expanded into Granite City Works in Illinois, Midwest Steel in Portage, Indiana, and additional finishing and coating lines in Michigan and Pennsylvania. The company was a major supplier of hot- and cold-rolled sheet, tin plate, and galvanized product to the automotive, appliance, and container industries. Weirton Steel was spun off through an ESOP in 1984, and the remaining National Steel operations were acquired by U.S. Steel in 2003.

National Steel’s core operating era for the plants named in publicly filed U.S. asbestos personal-injury and wrongful-death litigation runs from 1929 through the early 1980s and covers coke ovens, blast furnaces, open-hearth and BOF shops, continuous casters, hot-strip and cold-rolling mills, tin- and galvanizing lines, and powerhouses.

National Steel is named as a premises defendant in publicly filed U.S. asbestos personal-injury and wrongful-death litigation for alleged asbestos exposure across its integrated-steel network, including the Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia operations linked below.

Documented ACM Footprint

According to publicly filed asbestos litigation records, National Steel integrated plants allegedly involved asbestos-containing materials including:

  • Asbestos-bonded refractory brick and castable in blast furnace stoves, coke oven walls, open-hearth roofs, BOF vessels, and reheat furnaces
  • Asbestos gunning mix and monolithic cement on coke oven doors, ladles, tundishes, and BOF hoods
  • Asbestos pipe covering on powerhouse steam mains, blast-furnace bustle piping, and tin-mill and galvanizing process lines
  • Asbestos block and calcium silicate insulation on hot-strip reheat furnaces, soaking pits, and continuous-annealing lines
  • Asbestos sheet gaskets and rope packing at ladle, pump, valve, and mill-drive flanges
  • Asbestos fabric expansion joints in reheat furnace and BOF hood ductwork
  • Asbestos millboard, arc chutes, and panel materials in plant switchgear and motor-control centers
  • Asbestos sprayed fireproofing on structural steel in multi-story mill and finishing buildings

Plants by State

National Steel operated integrated works across multiple U.S. states. Detailed premises information is available on the following state jobsite pages:

If You Worked at a National Steel Plant

If you or a family member worked at a National Steel integrated plant — Granite City Works IL, Midwest Steel Portage IN, Great Lakes Steel Ecorse/River Rouge MI, Weirton Works WV, or any other National Steel facility — before the early 1980s and have been diagnosed with mesothelioma, lung cancer, asbestosis, or another asbestos-related disease, you may have a legal claim.

Free, confidential case evaluation: Speak with O’Brien Law Firm — (314) 936-2956