Pueblo has been known for years and years as ‘Steel City'. The mill is  the root of the city and it's hard to miss when passing by on the freeway. There is a lot more to Pueblo than the mill, but it has had such an impact on the city and it's residence. The ‘Steel City Diner' to the ‘SC Insurance Company' there is no denying Pueblo is Steel City.

Lengths would be tops in nation. Pueblo's Rocky Mountain Steel venture would make pieces up to 480 feet long, done now only in Europe.

By Kimberly S. Johnson
Denver Post Staff Writer

Article Last Updated:10/30/2006 11:03:04 PM MST

Rocky Mountain Steel Mills is considering building a new rail mill in Pueblo. The mill, which would replace the existing facility, would be the first in the nation capable of making rails up to 480 feet long.

"We're doing a study. It's by no means a done deal. There are lots of drivers," Robert Simon, vice president and general manager of Rocky Mountain Steel, said Monday. "The mill we have, pieces go back to the late 1920s and '30s."

The current rail mill can build rails up to 80 feet long. To date, rails 330 to 480 feet long are produced only in Europe. The prospect of a new Pueblo rail mill is attractive to railroad companies, Simon said.

Rocky Mountain Steel has 1,002 employees and is one of Xcel Energy's largest customers.

The engineering study has been underway for a few months, but there is no deadline frame for its completion or for the company's decision.

Officials wouldn't estimate the price tag of a new mill other than saying the facility would cost hundreds of millions of dollars.

"We're waiting for the study to see how much it would cost," said Ray Adams, chief financial officer for Oregon Steel Mills Inc., Rocky Mountain Steel's Portland, Ore.-based owner.

Building a new rail mill would result in some new jobs, but steelworkers could lose jobs when a new, state-of-the-art mill is fully operational, said Jim Sandusky, vice president of United Steel Workers, Local 2102.

"Usually, when they modernize a place, you lose a few jobs, not a whole lot, generally through attrition," he said. "We'd have to have training to learn the new technology."

Pueblo is the only potential location for a new Oregon Steel mill, Adams said.

"If we were to build a rail mill, it would built in Pueblo because that's where our steel mill is," he said.

Should the company decide to build a new rail mill there, Rocky Mountain Steel could seek incentives from the city, Simon said.

"We're pretty far away from that," he said. "There are a lot more questions than answers right now."

Staff writer Kimberly S. Johnson can be reached at 303-954-1088 or kjohnson@denverpost.com.