Northwest Indiana update.

• Author: Richards, Rick A.
• Position: Top Business Stories - Steel industry faces foreign competition, bankruptcies

Across northwest Indiana, most eyes have been on the steel industry, which has been buffeted by foreign competition and a series of bankruptcies that began a consolidation that continues today.

National Steel, which has a steel coating plant in Portage, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in March 2002, blaming foreign competition, weak steel prices and a weak U.S. economy. National's assets have since been acquired by U.S. Steel, which has a plant in Gary.

Also in March 2002, LTV Steel in East Chicago was reorganized after it filed bankruptcy in 2001 and renamed International Steel Group Inc. (ISG) The owner is W.L. Ross & Co. LLC, a New York investment firm. In May of last year, the former LTV mill began steel production again, under the ISG banner.

At about the same time, word began trickling Out that Bethlehem Steel, which has a plant in Burns Harbor in Porter County, was having financial trouble. For much of 2002, Bethlehem struggled to pull itself out of bankruptcy (it filed in late 2001), but it wasn't able to overcome the weak economy and low steel prices. In January 2003, ISG offered $1.5 billion to buy Bethlehem's assets, and Bethlehem turned over the company at the end of April.

Yet even as the steel industry continued to be challenged, the seven counties of northwest Indiana reported some bright spots.

LAKE COUNTY

In Hammond, Kroger signed a lease to reopen a shuttered 72,000-square-foot Dominick's supermarket and operate it as a warehouse, while local grocer Strack & Van Til opened a 63,000-square-foot store, its ninth in the region.

Along the U.S. 30 retail corridor in Merrillville and Hobart, CarMax opened a 14,700-square-foot, 300car sales lot at Interstate 65 and U.S. 30 that employs 75 people.

In Crown Point, Gordon Food Service announced plans to open a warehouse and distribution center at Interstate 65 and U.S. 231. The $80 million, 300,000-square-foot operation is expected to employ 300 people when it opens in three years.

PORTER COUNTY

Kurt Knutsen, president of the Portage Economic Development Commission, reports some positives.

"Lowe's has made a commitment to build along U.S. 6, and that will be coupled with a widening of the highway," Knutsen says of the main retail corridor in Portage.

"We've just started our Economic Development Commission. It's a homegrown group of people and we're working to position ourselves for next year." Helping that effort is AmeriPlex at the Port, a 385-acre high-tech industrial park that is...