The Consolidated Steel Corporation was an American steel and shipbuilding business. Formed on 18 December 1928,[1] the company built ships during World War II in two main locations: Wilmington, California and Orange, Texas. It was created by the merger of Llewellyn Iron Works, Baker Iron Works and Union Iron Works,[2] all of Los Angeles. The company entered the shipbuilding business in 1939.[3] In 1948, now a pioneer producer of large-diameter pipelines, Consolidated Steel was renamed Consolidated Western Steel and acquired by U.S. Steel and operated as a wholly-owned subsidiary.
The San Diego-based Consolidated Aircraft Corp. is not related and neither is the Union Iron Works of San Francisco. The company did not produce steel (the Llewellyn Iron Works did so during 1916–1923), neither from iron ores nor from pig iron, but rather fabricated standard steel mill product (plates and bars) into steel products (buildings, ships, pipes). In the 1950s, the company contributed ground equipment to the Project Nike missile system. In 1964, Consolidated was merged into the American Bridge Division of U.S. Steel.