A buyer for ArcelorMittal?

Russ Kingston (left) and Steelworkers Local Union President Dave York share a table at Thursday’s press conference, held at the union hall in Hennepin. Kingston of North American Trading Co. wants to buy the former ArcelorMittal steel plant, but his offers have been rejected by the company. Kingston met with area politicians to ask for their help in persuading ArcelorMittal to sell the plant rather than close it. (BCR photo/Barb Kromphardt)

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HENNEPIN — Russ Kingston has a plan for the shuttered ArcelorMittal steel plant in Hennepin.

There’s only one problem.

“We’re completely stalled and stopped,” he said. “They don’t want to sell the facility.”

Kingston was in Hennepin Thursday to meet with local politicians and ask for their help in making the sale happen.

Kingston is president and CEO of North American Trading Co., a start-up company based in California, that wants to use the Hennepin facility to make a new product called S-CLAD steel, a laminate of stainless and carbon steel.

Kingston said S-CLAD is a roll bond product that hadn’t before been able to be created cost-efficiently. They have been manufacturing small quantities on a  prototyping basis to show to potential customers, and they have now decided to go ahead with full-scale production. S-CLAD can be used as a straight replacement for stainless steel in applications such as high-end stainless steel appliances and kitchen countertops, and in more sophisticated products such as fuel cells and batteries.

“It’s got a lot of legs on it other than as a replacement for stainless steel,” Kingston said.

Kingston said he has a letter of intent to buy the former Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel Allenport Plant in Pennsylvania from Russian steelmaker OAO Severstal, but he also wants to buy the Hennepin facility.

“Hennepin’s a great facility for what we want to do,” he said. “It has capabilities the other facility does not have.”

Kingston said he was drawn to Hennepin by the “excellent” work force, the technical capabilities of the mill itself, and the location. Located on the Illinois River, the plant would give the new business the opportunity for shipping by barge, both bringing in raw materials and shipping out product virtually all over the world.

Kingston didn’t know how many previous employees would be hired if the sale went through. He said the plan would be to start making the existing product line and eventually hiring back all of the previous employees and management if possible, and then adding the new product line.

Kingston said he’s been talking with Mike Rippy, president and chief executive officer of Mittal Steel USA, for about six to eight months. He has made offers, only to have them rejected.

“The only response is the offer’s not high enough, but they have not given us a counteroffer,” he said. “We have been blocked rather thoroughly from purchasing the Hennepin plant.”

At Thursday’s meeting, which included Stacie Barton of Sen. Dick Durbin’s office, Carol Merna of Rep. Aaron Schock’s office, Rep. Frank Mautino, O.J. Stoutner of Sen. Gary Dahl’s office, and local officials and retired plant managers, Kingston said the feedback from the politicians was “mixed.”

“I think there’s some pessimism as to how much pressure they could actually apply,” he said. “But without a doubt, there was a strong willingness to do everything they can.”

Whatever the politicians can do, it will need to happen quickly.

“Our time line is dictated by what we heard through the grapevine, which is they will begin dismantling the plant in the next couple of weeks,” Kingston said. “Once they take away some of the certain capabilities, it will become worthless for our purposes or anybody who wants to make steel.”