Local firms benefit from proximity to 3 of nation’s largest steel producers
In the early 2000s, Miguel Estrada started his first trucking company. The company consisted of Estrada, one truck and one driver.
The company lasted nearly a decade but eventually failed.
“I was pretty convinced that I would never get into trucking, but my kid changed my mind,” Estrada said.
In 2012, Estrada started a new company, Indiana Steel Carriers, a family-owned business.
From its home base in Valparaiso, the company transports steel and other products to and from all 48 states and Mexico.
He is part of a network of companies that support some of the largest steel plants in the nation. From handling raw processing, high-definition fabrication and structural engineering, these companies provide jobs that help sustain major manufacturing and infrastructure in Northwest Indiana and beyond.
Chemcoaters in Gary offers coil coating. Munster Steel Co. is an American Institute of Steel Construction certified advanced bridge fabricator. Service Steel Warehouse in Hammond and Northern Steel Industries supply carbon steel. American Precision Services in Gary provides fabricating and welding. These companies are among many others that support the steel industry.
“In the 1970s, this entire secondary industry exploded in the Northwest Indiana-southern suburbs of Chicago,” said Ellen Lucke, executive sales director of Northern Steel Industries in Burns Harbor.
Since Northwest Indiana is home to some of the largest steel plants in the nation, competition is fierce for support services, as Estrada is well aware.
“It’s a very competitive market,” Estrada said. “There’s so much competition out there. It’s a tough environment.”
But Lucke is optimistic. And she has reason to be. Almost half of the country’s primary steel is produced in the Region’s three steel mills: Burns Harbor, Indiana Harbor and Gary Works
“Steel is not going anywhere,” she said.
Economic powerhouse
Since the early 1900s, U.S. Steel has operated one of the largest integrated steel plants in North America in Gary.
According to U.S. Steel, the Gary plant generated $1.8 billion in total economic impact in 2024, supported 8,402 jobs statewide, and contributed $67.4 million in state and local tax revenue.
“Indiana has been at the heart of U. S. Steel’s story for more than a century,” said David Burritt, chief Executive officer of U. S. Steel, in a company statement.
“Gary Works has been a cornerstone of American steelmaking since 1908, and today it continues to power the state’s economy while supporting thousands of good-paying jobs.”
The 2025 U.S. Steel report conducted by Parker Strategy Group also showed that U.S. Steel engaged 401 Indiana-based suppliers.
Meanwhile, Cleveland-Cliffs operates large plants in East Chicago and Burns Harbor.
The two companies account for 47 percent of the country’s primary steel production, according to a 2026 report by Indiana University.
These large operations open the door for small and specialized companies to work for or with U.S. Steel and Cleveland-Cliffs.
“There is a symbiotic relationship, and it is happening more and more,” said Joseph Gomeztagle, retired professor of the School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University Northwest in Gary and associate director of the Kelly School of Business at IU.
“They do work together,” he said. “The smaller companies know there is a benefit to working with the larger mills because the larger mills can’t do everything. It’s too costly for them.”
Gomeztagle knows the steel industry not just as a business professor but as a former worker in his younger years.
A native of Mexico City who now lives in St. John, Gomeztagle got his start working for Republic Steel on Chicago’s southeast side in the water control department.
Gomeztagle then moved on to Jones and Laughlin Steel Co., better known as J&L, working as an analyst for the company. Both of those companies are now closed.
Gomeztagle said today’s major steel producers make more steel but with far fewer workers.
“They don’t need as many workers as they used to,” Gomeztagle said. “Many of the services they used to do, they don’t do it anymore. That’s why the outside firms have flourished.”
Product delivery
But specialty steel mills aren’t the only ones that benefit. Other companies providing all kinds of services such as repair of machinery and delivery of products are finding their niche too.
Estrada said he has an advantage over his competitors in the delivery of products.
“There’s a lot of carriers that I don’t even know the cost per mile. They just go out there and do things without knowing their bottom number,” Estrada said. “They don’t have a clue as to what is going on.”
Estrada believes his knowledge, understanding and relationships he’s built with local steel producers is beneficial in securing clients and expanding his business. One of his clients is the U.S. Department of Defense.
In 2023, the company embarked on a new chapter by opening its second terminal in Laredo, Texas. The location helps to serve the expanding transportation and delivery to their clients across the United States and Mexico.
This includes the transportation demands of major steel mills, steel processors and an array of industrial companies. Products range from steel to aluminum, pipes and machinery.
“The years that I’ve been in business, I’ve gotten to know people, and they know how we operate and how we do things,” Estrada said. “We’re a minority-owned company, so that makes it a little bit easier. The whole team is making it happen. It’s not just me. Everybody in the office: the truck drivers, dispatchers, managers. It’s not just one person that is making all this happen.”
For the future, Estrada said he plans to keep the business in the family despite getting offers to sell.
“I’m ready to pass it on to the kids, and I’m pretty sure they have the ambition to build better and grow in the business,” he said. “I’m sure that is the new generation. I’ve got two boys, and my daughter. They’re gonna knock them out of the park. Their goals have no limits.”
More than odd jobs
For Robert Migliorini, president of American Precision Services in Gary, his company does machine shop work and mechanical repairs for clients like Cleveland-Cliffs but other firms as well.
“We do fabricating and welding. We also make parts, we rebuild mechanical rotating equipment, pumps and gearboxes,” said Migliorini, who employs about 60 people.
Migliorini said, when the mills are thriving, so are they.
“Some of the work that we get from the machine shop is either overflow that they’re too busy to get to or maybe they don’t have the right equipment for it,” Migliorini said.
Migliorini started working in the machine shop industry in the early 1970s. In 2003, he decided to start his own business.
“With two or three other people, we started American Precision Services,” he said. “The steel industry isn’t our only customer nor is it our only type of customer.”
For Migliorini, the size of a project doesn’t bother him. He said the firm recently finished a large project in California that took two years to complete.
“I won’t say what type of business it was, but it was a large, huge undertaking and a lot of dedication by the people working here to go out there, spend the amount of time needed,” he said. “We were shipping components to and from.”
Migliorini said he fell in love with machine shop class while in high school. And he still loves it.
“Today I was here at five or six in the morning. I’ll probably be here until 5:30 at night. That’s because I don’t like it. I love it,” Migliorini said. “I absolutely love it. The people that work here. I love the customers, the suppliers. It’s just fun to me.”
Raw materials
Northern Steel Industries in Burns Harbor got its start shortly after Al “Big Al” Kumskis ended his NFL career.
Born in Chicago’s Roseland neighborhood on the South Side, Kumskis attended Mount Carmel High School, a school known for football. From there, he played defensive end for the University of Miami in Florida before being drafted by the Cleveland Browns in 1963.
But injuries cut his career short. Once back home in Chicago, he got a job at a steel company.
“He did that for three weeks and came home and told my mom ‘I cannot do this anymore. Like this is the worst thing on earth,’” said his daughter Ellen Lucke. “He looked in the parking lot of the steel mill and saw a beautiful car. Went in and asked, ‘Whose car is that? What job do they do? And how do I get that job?’ … It was sales.”
That pushed Kumskis to become a salesman at Century Steel in Chicago Heights, Illinois.
In 1975, Kumskis and his wife, Nancy, decided to start their own company. Northern Steel Industries in Burns Harbor is one of several firms established by former employees of Century Steel.
Lucke, who is now the executive sales director of Northern Steel Industries, said the company is a distributor, a service center for steel products.
“We order custom-made steel at all the local mills, and then we process it and store it for our clients. We also buy steel that’s for sale on the secondary market,” Lucke said. “We take what the mill makes and turn it into usable raw material for the manufacturers. That is a unique industry to Northwest Indiana.”
Celebrating more than 51 years in business, the company with 74 employees now has clients near and far.
“We own the expertise in our Region because that’s where all the steel mills are,” Lucke said. “Although we have clients that we supply all over the country, most of this manufacturing gets done in the Gary area because that’s where all the equipment and all the expertise is.”
Kumskis passed away at the age of 72 in 2015, but the legacy he and his wife built survives.
Lucke said the company will remain a family-owned firm in the years to come. Its Burns Harbor facility still has space to grow.
“The next generation is coming into the company unlike so many companies that get bought by private equity and get ruined,” Lucke said.
“For Northern Steel, that’s not our vision. We plan to keep it and let it evolve.” •
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