WEIRTON - There will be a steel mill to employ the next generation of steelworkers, according to officials at ArcelorMittal Weirton, speaking before a tour of the plant Friday as part of the company's celebration of 100 years of steelmaking at the site.

E.T. Weir established a tin mill at Weirton in 1909 and after growing for decades the mill has been reduced in recent years to a tin mill and supporting operations again.

Brian James, ArcelorMittal Weirton general manager, said Friday, "A couple of years ago we spoke only of looking to tomorrow. Now, we're looking two and a half years down the road."

James was speaking of the "Steelworker of the Future" program of ArcelorMittal's U.S. operations. He said meetings have been held with local community colleges in hopes of establishing a program by the fall semester in 2010 to train workers on a co-op program toward receiving an associate degree for electrical or mechanical work for steel mills.

"The companies all had apprenticeship programs, but those have all gone by the wayside," James said. Through a co-op program, students go to school for a semester and work in the plant between semesters to have hands-on learning. He said the hopes are to have new steelworkers to begin working in about 2012. While he hesitated to use the word "guarantee" of jobs for graduates, there is an assurance the skills will be needed. He said even if the students don't end up hired at the local mill, the skills they will learn are valuable in heavy industry in many forms.

Mark Glyptis, president of United Steelworkers Local 2911, said the average age of the ArcelorMittal worker is in the mid-50s and most have more than 30 years of service. Glyptis said while that means it's an experienced and knowledgeable work force, preparations have to be made for a future with those employees retired.

"We're not that unusual" in the modern domestic steel industry, Glyptis said.

When Mittal closed the plant's steelmaking and ironmaking operations in 2005, senior workers who wanted to stay ended up in the parts of the plant still working - the cold strip and tin mill departments. It meant a lot of workers taking on jobs they hadn't done at all or hadn't done for years, but the work force responded.

According to James, the plant has delivery performance that is "infinitely better" than it was 18 months ago. That's when Weirton made its last coil of hot-rolled steel. The steel coils that are processed in the lines at Weirton come from the Indiana Harbor East plant of ArcelorMittal now.

He said that in 2007 the mill was making about 75 percent of its deliveries on time. Now, the on-time rate is more than 90 percent.

In addition, he said, the plant's yield (tonnage produced compared with tons put into the plant for finishing) has increased from about 73 percent to nearly 83 percent now, a record yield for the mill. James said the plant has been working so well that it has been nominated by ArcelorMittal USA's chief, Mike Rippe, for an internal excellence award, putting the performance of ArcelorMittal Weirton up against all of AM's operations around the world.

"We plan on continuing to improve," James said. He said while the plant serves a "captive audience" in the Ball USA, Nestle, Impress and Crown Cork and Seal factories in the Half Moon Industrial Park, its products are shipped as far away as Wisconsin, and south to Memphis.

Glyptis said while no one wanted to see the work force reduced to about 1,000 employees, there remains a pride in the job being done. He said the goal of being the best tin plant in the world is within reach, and ArcelorMittal has shown a commitment to the plant that wasn't always a sure thing.

Both men said while tin is facing increasing competition from plastics in product containers (James noted most coffee is stored in plastic cans now, for instance), the key to Weirton's future is in capturing more and more market share for the tin that still is in demand. James said when ArcelorMittal ended tin production at its Dofasco plant in Canada, it didn't automatically transfer the business to Weirton, but customers came to Weirton on their own.

ArcelorMittal has stopped tearing down old and abandoned sections of the plant for now. It tore down most of the open hearth during the past couple years and the scrap is stored on site. James said the company is waiting until it makes economic sense to get rid of the scrap - scrap prices have fallen in recent months - and continuing to remove the old parts of the mill.

He said future investment includes plans for new package boilers to be built closer to the mills that are in operation at the south end of the plant. The company is still operating on steam generated in boilers at the plant's north end that are decades old and inefficient compared with what's available in today's technology.