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Union Wire Rope, a WireCo WorldGroup
brand, is proud to announce one hundred
years in the design and manufacture of
wire ropes and assemblies. Union Wire
Rope products are used in construction,
logging, industry and surface mining.
Just before theUnitedStates enteredWorld
War I commodity prices were steadily
increasing. Industries were experiencing
shortages of supplies and rising prices,
and the lack of wire rope had become
so acute that drilling and production of
petroleum products were threatened.
Founder Henry Black, with a consortium
of oil men, purchased approximately 12.5
acres of land on the east bank of the Blue
River in Kansas City, Missouri, and on 17
th
May 1917, Black Steel and Wire Company
became a reality.
In 1927 a new management team
reorganized the company as Union Wire
Rope. After the war, Union was still strong in
the oilfields but began to seek other types
of business. This led to the development of
shovel and drag hoist ropes for the mining
industry, which have played a large part
in Union’s continued growth.
In 1958 Armco Steel acquired the assets
of the Union Wire Rope Corporation, and
in 1988 Union was acquired by WireCo
WorldGroup, making WireCo the largest
wire rope manufacturer in the United States
and where Union Wire Rope remains.
100 years on the ropes
wiredInUSA - May 2017
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