About Us: History

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At the same time, industry demand for stronger, tougher products led to the conversion from iron to steel castings. The melting process was changed to steelmaking and the name of the business was changed to the Buckeye Steel Castings Company. An interesting note is that from 1908 to 1928, Samuel Prescott Bush was the President of Buckeye Steel. He was to become the grandfather and great-grandfather respectively of the 41st and 43rd Presidents of the United States of America.

In 1967, Buckeye Steel became the flagship company of Buckeye International Inc., which was formed as a parent company for purchasing other non-foundry related businesses. Buckeye International was acquired by Worthington Industries Inc. in 1980, in a stock for stock merger. Buckeye Steel remained an operating subsidiary of Worthington Industries until 1999, when it was sold to Key Equity Capital in a leveraged buy-out. Buckeye Steel operated as a stand-alone entity for the next four years. However, the double blow of a weak freight rail market in 2000 followed by the devastating economic effects of 9/11 proved too much for the debt burdened business. In December of 2002 bankruptcy was filed.

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