Sharon Steel Corp. is no more.

Judge Warren W. Bentz signed an order Tuesday morning in Erie bankruptcy court that ended the long, grueling bankruptcy case of the defunct Farrell steelmaker.

Bentz's order pays off the company's final bills, mainly attorney fees, and allows the remaining assets, a few parcels of land still owned by the steelmaker, to be sold. The result: Sharon Steel no longer exists.

Filing for bankruptcy on Nov. 30, 1992, Sharon Steel at the time was Mercer County's largest employer with 2,700 workers. Production at the mill was halted and attempts to reopen the mill shortly after the bankruptcy filing were nixed by Bentz, who concluded it couldn't survive.

Since then the company has been slowly liquidated and its assets sold. What remains of the mill is now owned by Switzerland-based Duferco and goes under the name Duferco Farrell Corp.

During the brief 20-minute telephone hearing, Sharon Steel's attorney Herbert Minkel acknowledged the time had finally come to close the books on the company.

"I feel it's been a long time,'' Minkel said.

Bentz, who oversaw Sharon Steel's first bankruptcy filed in 1987, joked back, "I'm glad I made it to the end.''

In a brief interview after the hearing, Bentz said the size of the case and the complexities involved in liquidating the steelmaker made it difficult.

"I feel it took too long,'' Bentz said of finalizing the case. "It's a hard case to get your arms around.''

He noted the steel industry is mired in another severe round of companies seeking refuge in bankruptcy court.

"I really feel bad the steel industry is going through all these throes,'' he said.

Attorneys involved with the case for years talked about the end of an era, for the company, the steel industry and the community.

Phil Beard, an attorney for Sharon Steel's creditors' committee in both bankruptcy cases, had to grope for words when talking about the end of Sharon Steel.

"What do you say about a company that was once great and now is gone? It was people that did it in and then it was the economy and the steel industry that finally did it in," Beard said.

"It was such a big important matter at the time,'' said James Newell, an attorney for Mellon Bank. "Now, we're in the next cycle of steel bankruptcies. The timing of this one dying a quiet death is interesting.''

Mellon Bank assumed the role of the lead bank in the Sharon Steel case years ago. A consortium of bankers loaned Castle Harlan Inc. money to buy and operate Sharon Steel in December 1990. In only a few years the steelmaker was suffering huge losses and Castle Harlan, a New York investment bank, had little alternative but to place the company in the hands of the bankruptcy court.

Bankers in the case were nearly paid off in full, Minkel said after the hearing. They were owed more than $100 million including interest, he said. The banks were secured creditors, meaning the assets of Sharon Steel had been pledged to get the loans.

Unsecured trade creditors who were owed money prior to the bankruptcy filing got nothing, he said.

Minkel was involved in Sharon Steel's first bankruptcy as a creditors' attorney but in the second go-around he represented the steelmaker. He and Sharon Steel's executives led a futile effort to get Bentz to reopen the mill. Their last attempt in April 1993 failed.

In looking back though, Minkel acknowledged Bentz made the right decision.

"I feel bad for the people who were hurt by this,'' Minkel said. "But I had concerns whether the management team in 1993 could turn this around in light of what has happened to the steel industry. The logic of the situation is: Had we succeeded in getting the judge to allow Sharon (Steel) to reopen -- we ultimately would have failed because companies that have a lot deeper pockets than Sharon have gone down in that nine-year period.''

Environmental issues were the key sticking point, leading to the long duration in settling the case, he said.

"The fact that it took almost 10 years was not for want of a day-to-day effort on the part of the people involved in the case,'' Minkel said. "It's just that the properties had environmental problems associated with them which are unsellable until you solve the environmental problems and working with the government bureaucracies is difficult.''

Over the years a number of people ranging from union leaders to elected officials pulled out the stops trying to keep Sharon Steel afloat, he related.

In the steelmaker's first bankruptcy Minkel said the late Gov. Bob Casey made himself readily available to do whatever he could to help the company, as did then-U.S. Rep. Tom Ridge.

Ridge, who went on to become governor, was appointed director of the new Office of Homeland Security by President Bush shortly after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

"I also think the United Steelworkers made extraordinary efforts to try to keep Sharon Steel alive,'' Minkel said.

"I don't know that everyone in the Steelworkers knows how talented and dedicated the people are who represented them. Certainly the retirees should acknowledge a debt of gratitude. The Steelworkers have been extremely diligent in their attempts to cushion the blow of these (steel company) failures as visited on retirees.''

Sharon Steel has left a lasting mark in his life, Minkel relates.

"I've had other cases that have gone on for long periods of time. But I've been involved with Sharon Steel in one way or another for 13 out of the last 16 years of my life,'' he said. "You wake up every morning over a long period of time with a list in your head that you've got to try to move forward.''

Recalling the final days of Sharon Steel Corp. doesn’t trigger fond memories for Gene Bianco.

When he was head of the largest union at the former steelmaker more than nine years ago, Bianco’s office and home phones were constantly ringing with desperate calls.

"I had women call me up with children who had life-threatening illnesses,’’ said Bianco, former head of United Steelworkers Local 1197, which represented 2,200 production and maintenance workers at the plant in Farrell.

"They lost the insurance they had with Sharon Steel and couldn’t afford to pay for their own insurance. Women would be in tears sobbing, ‘What am I going to do ... What am I going to do.’ "

Bianco came to the realization there was nothing he could do.

"I had many sleepless nights,’’ he said. "The stress got so bad I ended up in the hospital with an irregular heartbeat. It was something that was overwhelming.’’

By the time Sharon Steel filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Nov. 30, 1992, production was halted for a lack of money and would never resume again. All 2,700 employees at the plant lost their jobs. At the time, the company was the largest employer in Mercer County.

Part of the mill operates today under new ownership as Duferco Farrell Corp. It employs 500.

Like Sharon Steel, Bianco’s local no longer exists; it was folded into another USW local.

With nearly 30 years under his belt at the steelmaker as a maintenance welder, Bianco has retired. In talking about Sharon Steel, the Sharon resident said most workers lost everything when the plant closed.

"People who were skilled in jobs were unable to find another job that paid what they were making at Sharon Steel,’’ he said. "There is no silver lining to Sharon Steel’s closing. But there is good news in the fact that Duferco is here and operating.’’

There’s no single reason for Sharon Steel’s downfall. Operating throughout the 20th century at the same site along the Shenango River, the company was bought by Miami Beach financier Victor Posner about 1970. Controlling about 87 percent of its stock, Posner was blamed for piling on enormous debt at the steelmaker and jettisoning its fabled stainless steel operation.

Entering its first bankruptcy on April 17, 1987, Posner was ousted as the company’s chairman. He died last month.

Sharon Steel was sold to Castle Harlan Inc., a New York investment bank in December 1990.

Exiting bankruptcy with high hopes, the company soon found itself unprofitable and deeply in debt. Filing for bankruptcy again on Nov. 30, 1992, Sharon Steel closed its doors with hopes of convincing Judge Warren W. Bentz to allow production to resume. But the bankruptcy court judge twice rejected motions to shift into production mode. Bentz oversaw the company’s first bankruptcy and was the same judge who closed the steelmaker’s books on Tuesday.

After much of the mill’s equipment was sold for scrap, Castle Harlan sold what remained of the steelmaker to Caparo Group. Castle Harlan declined to comment on the end of the steelmaker’s bankruptcy.

Now owned by Switzerland-based Duferco Group, the mill is no longer a made-from-scratch steel operation. Rather, steel is produced from almost entirely foreign-produced steel slabs.

A lack of reinvesting in new equipment, the overall demise of the steel industry and stainless-steel dumping all contributed to Sharon Steel’s demise, Bianco said.

"I think if they would have stayed in specialty steel -- stainless steel and high carbon steel -- I think they would have been able to hang on a lot longer,’’ he said.

But during the same time Sharon Steel was also battling steel imports, which pushed scores of other steelmakers to meet the same fate.

"When you look back and see all the plant closings -- it was more serious than what we thought at the time because of the imports,’’ Bianco said.

After hearing Tuesday that the bankruptcy case had been dismissed, Bianco acknowledged the final page of his long and emotional ride with the steelmaker had been turned.

"When it’s over, it’s over,’’ Bianco said.