Steel Company Fleets

[Shipwatcher News]

Neither the Burns Harbor or Stewart J. Cort were owned by Bethlehem Steel by the early 2000's. I'm the Burns Harbor was constructed under the ownership of Wilmington Trust and operated/managed by Bethlehem. As for the Cort, she was originally constructed for Bethlehem but sold to a bank in 2000 due to Bethlehem's financial issues. I think she is owned by MassMutual Asset finance or maybe Wilmington Trust. The Burns Harbor was purchased outright from Wilmington in 2005 when ASC took over her. International Steel had a similar charter agreement as in Bethlehem days to maintain some of their cargo needs.

As for the Stinson, she was sold in 1986 to Skar-Ore Corp., A holding company, and to Stinson Inc in 1989, another holding company. Hanna was retained as manager until
1992 when Interlake was contracted to manage the vessel. The Stinson was chartered back to National Steel to fulfill cargo needs. So, the National Steel fleet was actually dissolved by 1986.

[pcolachap]

Concerning George A Stinson, she was operated 1990 ~ 1995 by Interlake; in 1996 she went over to American Steamship. Somewhere along that line she was bought by an investor group that identified as Stinson Incorporated. They came upon hard times -bankruptcy- the boat was laid up for several months & then resumed service for American Steamship under new owners. Their primary run was to Great Lakes Steel, Zug Island, but not owned by the also financially troubled National Steel in this time frame.

[Guest]

Bethlehem Steel operated two thousand footers, the Stewart J. Cort and Burns Harbor, until its assets were purchased by the International Steel Group in 2003. When ISG was acquired by the Netherlands-based Mittal in 2005 these ships were moved to other fleets (ASC and Interlake) and time chartered back to the steel company to comply with the Jones Act. In any case, I believe ISG would be the last steel company to operate a fleet dediated to serving its own needs. In any case, the Bethlehem fleet and the subsequent ISG fleet outlasted the Inland Steel fleet by just a few years.

The steel company-owned fleets played a significant role in the development of the Great Lakes Shipping Industry during the 20th century. The need to move a tremendous amount of raw materials for steel production resulted in several innovations that increased the efficiency of this and other trades on the lakes. As the robustness of the North American steel industry went into decline after the late 1950s, however, these fleets began disappearing. I would hazard to guess that one of the primary reasons the United States Steel Corporation spun off its lake fleet to form the USS Great Lakes Fleet Inc. in the early 1980s was because it did not have enough tonnage requirements to keep its fleet steadily working.

Making a slight divergence from the American-owned steel company fleets, how many Canadian steel companies operated vessels on the lakes? I can only think of the Yankcanuck that was owned for a period by the Algoma Steel Corporation.

[tugboathunter]

ISG/International Steel Group owned the Cort and Burns Harbor (Cort may have been a bank charter like it is today) until 2005 when they were taken over by Interlake and ASC, respectively. I believe these were the last lakers owned by the steel mill that they serviced. In addition, the George A. Stinson was owned by National Steel until 2003.

[Shipwatcher News]

Also, Inland owned their fleet up until 1998 when the Ispat buyout occurred. Since, the fleet has been owned by the holding company Indiana Harbor Steamship. I believe this would have been the last steel manufacturer to provide their own raw material transportation

[Shipwatcher News]

US Steel sold off majority stake in their Great Lakes fleet in 1988 to Blackstone Partners. They began divesting in the early 1980's, reorganizing the fleet as a separate corporation named USX Great Lakes Fleet Inc. US Steel owned majority stake in stock there until 1988 when they sold most off to Blackstone. The entire fleet was sold to CN Railway in early 2004 and the company renamed Great Lakes Fleet Inc.

[Denny]

I would say the ships from the Old Inland Steel Fleet such as the Block, Sykes and Ryerson. Inland Steel Company was taken over by Ispat International in the late 1990s. Up until that time at least I thought that they were owned and operated then at least by the Inland Steel Company? Sorry if I am wrong and incorrect on my bit of information. Regarding the Great Lakes Fleet, they have had so many name changes throughout their past history that I can't keep up with them anymore. Thank goodness there are books written on their company history otherwise unless I found someone to talk to that once sailed in their fleet, I would probably never know about their company history then. Just food for thought on that comment.

[Guest]

I'm guessing Great Lakes fleet (Key Lakes) formerly US Steel owned

[Guest]

What was the last lake shipping fleet directly owned by a steel company?