Heart of Steel: 6 lessons learned about Cleveland's industrial endurance

CLEVELAND, Ohio - From ArcelorMittal in the industrial Flats one can see the downtown skyline.

This photo takes in part of the steel mill and Terminal Tower in one glimpse - a fitting depiction of the city given the role of manufacturing in Cleveland.

Heart of Steel, a Plain Dealer special report on manufacturing, appeared in Sunday's newspaper and on cleveland.com. The report focuses on ArcelorMittal Cleveland, which evolved from the failed LTV Steel. (The former International Steel Group initially rose from LTV's ashes.)

The short of it? Manufacturing, which is in the city's marrow, has taken a battering for decades. However, the potential for a promising future exists.

(Photo: Lonnie Timmons III, The Plain Dealer)

Six takeaways about manufacturing in Cleveland: Heart of Steel

While reporting on The Plain Dealer special section, Heart of Steel, we found the following highlights, or lessons, about Cleveland's manufacturing industry and the people who keep it going.

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Richard Kendzierski, The Plain Dealer

Lesson 1: Hard hit, but not done for

When LTV closed in 2002, many predicted manufacturing would never rise again on the site.

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Thomas Ondrey, The Plain Dealer

Lesson 1: Hard hit, but not done for

Not only is ArcelorMital making steel, it is said to be the most productive steel plant in the world.

Manufacturing has a future, but it may look different from its past. This includes a smaller, higher-skilled workforce.

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President Barack Obama gestures with his hands as he asks steelworker George Paul, right, how steel is flattened to precise thicknesses as he tours AcelorMittal's galvanized steel plant in the Flats on Thursday, November 14, 2013. The President and his entourage are in a computer-controlled area known as the Pulpit Delivery.

Thomas Ondrey, The Plain Dealer

Lesson 2: Re-creation often necessary

Little is the same about the way business is done now at ArcelorMittal and how it was done during LTV days.

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Joe Thompson, senior operations technician, watches from a pulpit the preparation of molten steel before the pouring in the caster at #2 Steel Producing at the ArcelorMittal Cleveland site, photographed Thursday, September 28, 2016. Computer screens allow him to monitor all the ingredients being used.

Thomas Ondrey, The Plain Dealer

Lesson 2: Re-creation often necessary

Without this extensive transformation, Cleveland wouldn’t have a steel mill. For example, the adversarial relationship between management and union has been recreated into an effective partnership that has guided the plant’s success. Also, while ArcelorMittal has about half the employees of LTV, they are higher skilled and significantly more productive.

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Bruce Lance shows Brandon Urankar how to use a torch to repair a segment. When this photo was taken in July 2014, Urankar was an intern at ArcelorMittal, participating in a program designed to close the skills gap in the steel industry,

Lonnie Timmons III/The Plain Dealer

Lesson 3: Low skill out, high skill in

For decades, many steel mill jobs, like many in manufacturing, were relatively low-skill. For example, many of the laid off LTV workers didn’t have high school diplomas. Workers could have been employed there for years without the company requiring training. At ArcelorMittal training is routine. Most low-skill laborer positions have disappeared. Workers are required to hold several skills. For example, a worker couldn’t just be a pipefitter, he or she would also need to be a welder or know how to read blueprints. Instead of being places where high school dropouts could get hired, steel mills, like other manufacturing employment, is increasingly higher skill, often requiring an associate degree.

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View of ArcelorMittal Steel's hot dip galvanizing line with coils of finished product on Friday, Feb. 15, 2013. The plant produces steel for auto and appliance makers.

The Plain Dealer

Lesson 4: Innovation leads to success

Innovation is a priority at ArcelorMittal Cleveland. For example, the plant has stayed ahead of the competition by producing Advanced High Strength Steels, or AHHS. The market for this specialty steel continues to increase as automakers rely on the lighter weight metal to meet federal fuel efficiency standards. Expanding its product line meant the plant was less susceptible to the onslaught of foreign steel being sold in the U.S. a few years ago at artificially low prices in violation of trade laws.

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Mark Kovach, division manager of Finishing at Arcelor Mittal, has worked in management at the steel mill for many years. Despite his wishes for both of hisdaughters to work in business in another field, Shawna, 33, shown here, and Jacqueline, 31, both work in the mill's commercial sale and customer service division.

Marcia Pledger, The Plain Dealer

Lesson 5: Multi-generational families

Few industries can boast of attracting three or four generations of workers. Steelworkers everywhere say it's partly about the pride in being part of making so many products. ArcelorMittal employees take that pride to a whole new level, quick to say that the Cleveland mill is best in the world. Yet, it's a tough industry, with duties that range from highly technical to lethally dangerous

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Photo courtesy of Interlake Steamship Co.

Lesson 6: Inextricably linked

The rise and fall and possible rise again of manufacturing, especially in the steel industry, affects support businesses to the core. Middleburg Heights-based Interlake Steamship Co. and W.H. Fay Co. in Tremont, are two companies that have survived for more than 100-years. Both are family-owned: Freighters filled with raw materials and the trucking company. Interlake has nine vessels that deliver close to 20 million tons of raw material annually - including 13,000 tons of iron ore that's regularly hauled to ArcelorMittal.

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