Atlas completes Evraz NA deal, renames firm, and hires former USS exec as CEO

Atlas also said it had named a former top U.S. Steel executive, Doug Matthews, to be CEO of the company.

Matthews worked at U.S. Steel for 33 years. He replaces Skip Herald, who had served as president and CEO since 2019. Herald will remain on the board of Orion Steel, Atlas said.

What they’re saying

Atlas cheered Matthews decision to join Orion Steel as its top executive.

“He brings a forward-thinking, hands-on approach that helped transform U.S. Steel’s commercial strategy and operations, and he has the deep belief that the heart of this business is the people on the ground, running the mills day in and day out —and he works to empower them to perform at their best,” Atlas Managing Partner Sam Astor said in a statement.

Matthews said he was eager to lead the company, which went through a tumultuous few years following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, subsequent sanctions, and a years’ long sales process.

“As a well-capitalized strategic supplier, Orion Steel is poised to become a central player in the North American market, helping to ensure economic and security interests of the United States and Canada are advanced through significant, local production,” Matthews said.

A brief history and an operations overview

Atlas announced in June that it would acquire Evraz NA. It did not release details of the transaction. But the Wall Street Journal reported that Atlas had paid as much as $500 million for the company.

In the US, Orion Steel operates a plate mill in Portland, Ore., as well as a solar-powered EAF mill in Pueblo, Colo. The Pueblo mill makes seamless oil country tubular goods, wire rod, and coiled rebar as well as rail. Notably, the Pueblo mill is one of the largest rail mills in the US and the world’s largest solar-powered mill.

In Canada, the company is primarily known for its OCTG and line pipe operations in the provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan. Those facilities primarily serve oil and gas markets in western Canada.

Each mill that is part of Orion Steel will have its own name, Atlas said. The Pueblo mill will operate as “Rocky Mountain Steel Mills.” The Portland plate mill will go by “Oregon Steel Mills.” And the Canadian pipe mills will be named “Interpro Pipe and Steel.”

Those names hark back to the early 2000s, before Swedish steelmaker SSAB as well as Russian steelmakers Evraz and TMK split up the assets of the former IPSCO Inc.

All told, Orion Steel operates two electric-arc furnace facilities, four rolling mills, eight tube mills, and 17 scrap recycling facilities. It has annual steelmaking capacity of 2.3 million tons and finished steel capacity of 3.5 million tons per year.