Sterling Steel
Large load · 101 AVENUE K, Sterling, IL
Sterling Steel is Leggett & Platt's scrap-melting steel mill in Sterling, Illinois, on part of the former Northwestern Steel and Wire site. A large electric arc furnace feeds a single-strand rod mill that makes more than 500,000 tons of wire rod a year, most of it drawn into wire for Leggett's own bedding and furniture components. The melt shop is the site's big electric load, and the company has scheduled it around electricity prices.
Overview
Northwestern Steel and Wire closed its 2.4 million ton per year Sterling mill in 2001. In 2002 Leggett & Platt bought about 145 of its 700 acres, including the melt shop, caster and rod mill, for .4 million at auction and planned to spend about $25 million refurbishing them, with rod production dedicated to its own wire operations from early 2003. Morgan Construction commissioned a major upgrade of the rod mill in 2005.
Profile
- Electricity and the melt shop schedule
- In 2011 the plant's general manager said the melt shop's 400-ton furnace, described as the largest in North America, ran only on weekends because of lower electricity rates, while the rod mill ran around the clock. Even so, the company was paying about $15 million a year for electricity. Shifting melting to low-price periods is a form of load flexibility. Neither the company nor its utility has published a MW figure for the site.
- Output and ownership today
- Leggett & Platt's 2026 recruiting materials describe Sterling Steel as producing over 500,000 tons of wire rod a year with more than 275 employees, and name Leggett as both owner and largest customer. Rod is used for products including bed springs.
Facility
- Activity
- Scrap-based electric arc furnace melt shop and single-strand wire rod mill
- Industry
- Manufacturing
- Site type
- Facility
- Operating status
- Operating
Related records
Timeline
- Jul 31, 2002
- Leggett & Platt buys the melt shop, caster and rod mill of the former Northwestern Steel and Wire mill.
Leggett & Platt enters the Steel Making Business with Acquisition...
- Mar 8, 2005
- Rod mill upgrade commissioned.
Morgan Commissions Sterling Steel Rod Mill Upgrade - Association for Iron & Steel Technology