This company was created in 1902 by the merger of eight separate foundries, including the American Steel Foundry Co. of Granite City, Illinois (near St. Louis), and the business of George M. Sargent, then based in the Chicago suburb of Englewood. The company's headquarters moved to Chicago in 1905. Over the next several decades, it operated large plants at East Chicago and Hammond, Indiana; the latter facility had about 2,600 workers during the 1930s. During World War II, the company produced about a quarter of the cast armor made in the United States. In 1962, when its name became Amsted Industries, the privately held company bested $100 million in annual sales and ranked as the leading manufacturer of steel castings in the United States. Amsted Industries continued to grow into the 1970s, when it employed about 2,500 Chicago-area residents. By 2002, Amsted reached about $1.4 billion in annual sales and employed fewer than 1,000 Chicago-area residents but over 9,000 people nationwide.

This entry is part of the Encyclopedia's Dictionary of Leading Chicago Businesses (1820-2000) that was prepared by Mark R. Wilson, with additional contributions from Stephen R. Porter and Janice L. Reiff.