International Steel Group Inc. has completed the acquisition of the assets of the Georgetown Steel Co. facility in Georgetown, S.C., for a purchase price of $18 million in cash, plus assumed liabilities.

"We want to thank the Georgetown community, the County of Georgetown and the United Steelworkers of America for their support in completing this transaction," said Rodney B. Mott, ISG's President and CEO. "We are committed to restarting and operating this facility. It has the reputation in the steel rod industry of producing high-quality steel rod and we intend on maintaining this reputation."

The Georgetown plant has the capability to produce high-quality wire rod products, which are used to make low carbon fine wire drawing, wire rope, tire cord, high-carbon machinery, and upholstery springs. The facility has annual steelmaking capacity of 1 million tons and rolling capacity of 800,000 tons, and also has the capacity to produce 500,000 tons annually of Direct Reduced Iron (DRI), a scrap substitute. Georgetown Steel filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in October 2003 and the plant has been idle since then.

"We have been looking to improve our product mix by broadening our offering of value-added products, and we are excited about entering the rod and wire market, which offers substantial growth opportunities for ISG," Mott added.

International Steel Group Inc. (ISG) is the largest integrated steel producer in North America, based on its capacity to cast approximately 21 million tons of steel products annually, not including the effect of the Georgetown acquisition. ISG ships a variety of steel products from 12 major steel producing and finishing facilities in seven states, including hot-rolled, cold-rolled and coated sheets, tin mill products, carbon and alloy plates, rail products and semi-finished shapes serving the automotive, construction, pipe and tube, appliance, container and machinery markets.