Zug Island - Steel Mill

Steel Mill

The Detroit Iron Works brought ironmaking to Zug Island in 1901 with the commissioning of a blast furnace built in 1902. In 1904 the works was purchased by the M.A. Hanna Company of Cleveland, Ohio which built a second blast furnace in 1909. At this time the island's two furnaces were reportedly the largest of their kind in the world, producing pig iron for foundry companies. The plant expanded and became part of the Great Lakes Steel Corporation in late 1931, becoming a key component of a fully integrated steel mill and a division of the larger National Steel Corporation. A third blast furnace was added in early 1938 while the existing furnaces were rebuilt and enlarged.

When National Steel became insolvent in 2003 most of the island's facilities were purchased, along with the rest of what's now called the Great Lakes Works, by United States Steel, which currently operates the mill. The island is home to the mill's ironmaking facilities (the rest of the mill's facilities, primarily steelmaking and processing, are located at the main plant a couple miles south in the city of Ecorse) which includes 3 blast furnaces ("A", "B" and "D") and raw materials storage areas. Ships supply large ore docks along the north ("1 Dock") and east ("3 Dock") shores of the island and large coal/coke/ore storage fields along the south and west ("B Area") shores. Number 5 Coke Battery located there, once an integral part of the mill, is now independently owned and operated by EES Coke LLC, a DTE Energy company, which gained it during the National Steel bankruptcy. Delray Connecting Railroad, a U.S. Steel company, also operates some rail facilities on the island while a now-defunct small Honeywell chemical plant sits in shambles at the mainland end of the main or "2-way" vehicle/rail bridge to the island. Secondary vehicle and rail bridges (the "Shortcut") at the southwestern corner of the island also allow mainland access.

Iron produced at Zug Island is transported in hot metal cars via rail to steelmaking at the main plant while DTE's coke is shipped via rail to supply consumers, chiefly ISG/Mittal, in the merchant metallurgical market. During the industry's peak, thousands of workers were employed on the island with a large percentage of the downriver community supported by the local steel producer. Today a few hundred people work on the island with the hourly workers at U.S. Steel represented by United Steelworkers Local 1299. In fall of 2008 U.S. Steel halted its production due to the economic downturn, but restarted its production in fall of 2009.