W hen you think of steel, you probably think of Pittsburgh.

Unless you live in the Golden Triangle.

For the better part of the millennium, steel production has been a vital part of the area’s economy, employing hundreds of workers and pumping millions of dollars into Lowndes County and its schools.

You would be hard-pressed to find a better success story than the steel mill, which began production in 2007 and is now owned by Steel Dynamics Inc.

It’s fair to say the steel mill has been an unqualified success right from the start. Former owner Severstal doubled the size of the plant in 2011 and then sold to SDI three years later. In the eight years since SDI bought the facility, it has expanded multiple times, most notably a $100-million expansion in 2015 and a $240-million expansion.

Today, SDI employs 850 workers with an average salary of $117,000.

Had we been told that in 2005, we would have scarcely been able to imagine it.

Even so, the full impact of the steel mill goes far beyond those numbers. Its arrival put Lowndes County on the economic development map. Other industries followed, bringing hundreds of additional good-paying jobs and pumping millions more into our economy.

Now, 15 years after the steel mill opened, it is easy to take it for granted.

Every now and then, however, we are reminded of just how profound an impact the mill has had on our community.

Thursday was such a day, when Altex Tube broke ground on a $108-million facility located on the SDI campus. Altex Tube manufactures steel tubing. When it opens in mid-2023 it is projected to create 58 jobs with an average pay of $72,000.

When the company decided to leave Washington State, it would have been welcomed almost anywhere. That it chose Lowndes County is no accident. By locating right next door to SDI, it will be able to access the steel it needs with zero transportation costs. For SDI, having a customer right next door will create the same advantages. At a time when fuel costs are high, that’s no small savings.

This is the kind of synergy that helps both existing industry and new arrivals.

We welcome Altex Tube to our community as we are reminded of the continuing impact of the steel mill that opened in the prairie of west Lowndes County in 2007.

Who could have imagined what it would come to mean to us?

The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.

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