Bethlehem company invests $11.5M in Steelton steel manufacturer

To meet increased demand for its forged steel components, Lehigh Heavy Forge Corp. in Bethlehem is investing $11.5 million into ArcelorMittal Steelton, a steel and mining company in Steelton, Dauphin County.

Lehigh Heavy Forge receives shipments of vacuum-poured ingots (metal materials that can be cast into shapes for further processing) from ArcelorMittal Steelton. The Bethlehem manufacturer then shapes the ingots on its 10,000-ton open die press to create products that include pressure vessels for commercial nuclear and petrochemical markets, generator shafts for the power generation business and shafts and cylinders for capital goods and other end-users, according to a news release.

The investment will allow ArcelorMittal to increase capacity and, in turn, deliver more product to Lehigh Valley Forge.

"The history is that our forging operation was part of Bethlehem Steel and the Steelton company was part of Bethlehem Steel," Allan Robertson, vice president of marketing and sales for Lehigh Heavy Forge, said this morning.

Lehigh Heavy Forge sees increasing demand for its products.

"We were limited on the number of vacuum-poured ingots that we could obtain," he said.

The investment is the first of three planned investments by Lehigh Heavy Forge at ArcelorMittal Steelton and includes a 260-foot expansion of the ingot facility, railroad track rerouting and utility relocation and engineering work.

The first part of the investment will allow Steelton to use existing steel capacity to increase its current vacuum pour capacity by about 25 percent.

Other parts of the project will include new equipment purchases and installations at Steelton to better respond to the expected increase in market demand for vacuum-poured ingots, according to the news release.

The investment allows Lehigh Heavy Forge to obtain more ingots, which will require additional employees to handle the production, Robertson said.

While he said Lehigh Heavy Forge is always looking for quality workers, he said it was too early to determine how many new jobs the project would bring to Bethlehem, since the expansion would not be completed until the end of November.

Source: LVB.com