AsbestosAsbestos Industry
Job SitesShipyards
Bethlehem Shipbuilding
Bethlehem Steel Corporation is the second largest steel producer in the United States, with annual revenues of $5 billion and shipments of nine million tons of steel annually. Sparrows Point, Bethlehem Shipbuilding's location, has been an iron and steel plant since 1889. The company's steel related operations: BethShip, BethForge and CENTEC, reported a loss from operations of $241 million in 1996, including $210 million of restructuring charges related to their decision to exit that area of business. These businesses, including BethShip's Sparrows Point MD shipyard, continued operations while the company was selling them off in late 1996. In 1997 Bethlehem reached a settlement with the EPA over a wide range of environmental issues, including air-pollution violations from 1990 to 1995, air emissions, waste-water discharges, and solid-waste management.
BethShip, Inc. consisted of a ship repair yard at Sparrows Point in Maryland; it repaired and serviced ships as well as fabricated industrial products. The yard included a graving dock, a floating drydock with lifting capacity of up to 40,000 tons, and two full-service outfitting piers.
In October 1997, a buyer was found: Veritas Capital Fund, a New York-based merchant banking and investing firm, took over the operations of Sparrows Point Shipyard. A new $300 million cold rolling mill complex was scheduled to begin production in 1999.
Sources:
- Bethlehem Shipbuilding; Sparrows Point MD
