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John W. Hancock, Jr., Inc. is a steel joist and structural rack manufacturing plant located in Salem, Virginia, U.S.A. It manufactures Open Web K-Series, Longspan LH-Series, Deep Longspan DLH-Series, Joist Girders, and both pallet and cantilever structural rack systems. It was founded by Mr. John William Hancock, Jr. (1904-1994). The growth and success of John W. Hancock, Jr., Inc. is a direct result of the creative thinking and tenacity of our founder. |
| While Mr. John W. Hancock, Jr.
was overseas during World War II, he was intrigued by the many acres of
Quonset huts (semicylindrical metal buildings serving as a shed or
barrack). After returning to Roanoke, Virginia in 1945, he established a
dealership for selling these Quonset huts. He realized that they could be
sold and erected quickly and cheaply. In March 1946, John W. Hancock, Jr.,
Inc. was organized and Quonset hut buildings were the first of various
products to be sold by the new company.
By 1949, the building boom was going strong in America and Mr. Hancock saw the need for open-web steel joists as a method for supporting roof and floor systems. Already his company was brokering joist and having a terrible time getting delivery and service. At some point he said enough is enough, we can become a manufacturer. On January 1, 1950, his idea became a reality and manufacturing of steel joists began. As the joist business progressed and prospered, Mr. Hancock was increasingly frustrated by the erratic shipments of steel he ordered from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and for a time relied on foreign steel which was also not satisfactory. After much study and research, he decided that what he needed was his own steel mill. He learned that by firing furnaces with electricity instead of the traditional coke ovens, a mini-mill could be built in a much smaller area, with fewer employees, and for less money. In 1955, Mr. Hancock started building Roanoke Electric Steel Corporation (RESCO), the first mini-mill in the Southeast. Financing of the Mill was done through sale of one share of stock packaged with two second mortgage bonds. The stock was valued at one hundred dollars and each bond was valued at one hundred dollars, a three hundred dollar package. Original investors have been rewarded handsomely. In 1956, Roanoke Electric Steel operations began with less than 100 company employees. Original equipment consisted of a 4-ton-per-hour electric furnace. In only five years, RESCO was operating at peak production. In 1962, it became the first commercial continuous steel casting plant in the United States. Today, the main plant of Roanoke Electric Steel Corporation is a state-of-the-art steel mini-mill located in Roanoke, Virginia. This facility melts scrap steel in electric furnaces and continuously casts the molten steel into billets. These billets are later rolled into steel products consisting of plain rounds, flats, angles, and channels of various lengths and sizes. Billet steel is also sold to various mills which do not have melting facilities. In 1975, John W. Hancock, Jr., Inc., a major customer of RESCO because of their purchase of rounds and angles from the plant to fabricate steel joists, was merged into Roanoke Electric Steel Corporation as a subsidiary. |
