SEATTLE -- The closed Isaacson Steel plant of Seattle will soon become a fully operating steel plant in Shanghai, China.
The plant, formerly the largest steel fabricating plant in the Northwest, will be broken down and shipped lock, stock and barrel to China where it will be reassembled into a viable steel manufacturing facility.
Isaacson announced in July it was shutting down and laying off its 270 employees due to sour economic conditions, high costs and intense foreign competition.
Shortly after the shutdown was announced, a ,spokesman said, steps got underway to sell the plant to China. Isaacson is a private, family-held corporation and terms of the deal have not been released.
A ship is scheduled to arrive in Seattle Dec. 14 to transport more than 600 tons of boxed-up Isaacson steel to its new home.
Jim Manis, a trade specialist with the U.S. Department of Commerce, said it is not unusual for China to buy equipment for plants in this country, but components of those plants normally are assembled from a number of sources. It is rare, he said, for an entire plant to be bought at once.
The only people still working for Isaacson are former supervisory personnel who will go to China next March to help install the plant and train the Chinese.
Some 300 Chinese workers will eventually go to work in the plant producing the same steel fabrication workers used to crank out at Isaacson in Seattle.
