Northwest Indiana update: Top business stories.

• Author: Richards, Rick A.
• Position: Regional Report Northwest

At the close of 2001, northwest Indiana's 800-pound gorilla-- the steel industry--had become more of a chimp. With LTV fighting for its life in bankruptcy court (the company with a mill in East Chicago filed for bankruptcy protection in July), along with the October bankruptcy filing of Bethlehem Steel in Burns Harbor in neighboring Porter County, it wasn't a good year for steel. A glut of cheap, imported steel--much of it dumped on the U.S. market at less than the cost of production by government-subsidized steel makers in Asia--is the likely culprit. Whether northwest Indiana's steel makers will once again produce 25 percent of the nation's steel is anyone's guess.

Steel's decline had a ripple effect across the region, but not all the news was bad.

LAKE COUNTY

In the most populous county in the region, there were bright spots in spite of the problems at LTV.

Even though Gary lost an Ames department store and its 144 jobs, the city gained 50 manufacturing jobs when Blastech opened at the end of November. Based in Canada, Blastech provides protective linings and coatings for steel products. The company moved into a shuttered building and spent $1.9 million to renovate it and another $3.3 million to install production equipment.

The Gary/Chicago Airport also got a boost when the FAA approved its master plan in November, putting it in the running as the third major Chicago-area airport. In August, the airport was chosen by Boeing Corp. as the home of part of its corporate fleet. Boeing moved its headquarters from Seattle to Chicago last year.

Along Lake County's retail shopping district on U.S. 30 in Merrillville, Costco opened a 143,000-square-foot store, employing 257 people. It's part of a 400,000-square-foot development that also includes Lowe's, Outback Steakhouse, Babies R Us, CarMax and several other restaurants and smaller retailers.

PORTER COUNTY

Even with the bad news of Bethlehem Steel's bankruptcy filing, the headlines in Porter County weren't all gloomy.

In Valparaiso, Deb Butterfield, president of the chamber of commerce, says the city was able to expand its manufacturing base.

"TBR USA is going to be producing some parts related to pickuptruck covers," she says. The plastics company is based in Germany (the parent company is Taubenreuther) and opened in a building that once housed a windshield-wiper manufacturer that moved to Michigan City several years ago.

Butterfield says the company expects to have about 30,000 square feet...