{{Short description|American industrial conglomerate}} {{Use mdy dates|date=July 2025}} {{Infobox Company | name = Zidell Companies | logo = Zidell logo.jpg | type = Private | genre = | foundation = [[Portland, Oregon]], 1916 | founder = Sam Zidell | location_city = Portland, Oregon | location_country = United States | location = | locations = | area_served = World | key_people = | industry = [[Manufacturing]] and [[ship construction|shipbuilding]] | products = [[Barges]], steel tube fittings | services = Barge leasing | revenue = | operating_income = | net_income = | assets = | equity = | owner = Zidell family | num_employees = 200 | parent = | divisions = | subsid = Zidell Marine, Tube Forgings of America | slogan = | homepage = | footnotes = | intl = }} [[File:Zidell Marine Portland Oregon.JPG|thumb|Zidell Marine, in the [[South Waterfront]] district of Portland, Oregon]]

The '''Zidell Companies''' are a group of family-owned companies based in [[Portland, Oregon]], United States. They include '''Zidell Marine''', a [[ship construction]] company which, from 1961 until 2017, specialized in the building of [[barge]]s, and '''Tube Forgings of America''' Inc.

In the post-[[World War II]] era, Zidell became the largest [[shipbreaking]] operation in the [[United States]]. In September 2016, the company announced that it is preparing to shut down its barge-building business permanently and close its [[South Waterfront]] factory in 2017.<ref name="last barge">{{cite news |last=Rogoway |first=Mike |title=Zidell is building its last barge<!--(print-edition headline)--> |newspaper=[[The Oregonian]] |date=September 23, 2016 |page=B11 |orig-year=published online September 21 |url=http://www.oregonlive.com/business/index.ssf/2016/09/zidell_yards_building_its_last.html |access-date=October 1, 2016}}</ref> The company launched its last barge in June 2017.<ref name="bus-trib-2017jun">{{cite news |last=Gallivan |first=Joseph |title=Shipping out the 277: Zidell's final barge launches today, because real estate is too hot |newspaper=[[The Business Tribune]] |date=June 16, 2017 |pages=3–5 |orig-year=online date June 15 |url=http://portlandtribune.com/but/239-news/363297-243136-up-a-notch-277-gets-shipped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170810195105/http://portlandtribune.com/but/239-news/363297-243136-up-a-notch-277-gets-shipped |url-status=dead |archive-date=August 10, 2017 |access-date=August 10, 2017}}</ref><ref name="oreg-2017jun16">{{cite news |last=Marum |first=Anna |title=Despite hiccup, Zidell Yards launches its last barge |newspaper=[[The Oregonian]] |date=June 16, 2017 |url=http://www.oregonlive.com/business/index.ssf/2017/06/zidell_yards_last_barge.html |access-date=August 10, 2017}}</ref>

==History== [[File:ZIDELL'S SHIP WRECKING YARD WITH FREEWAY AND SKYLINE IN BACKGROUND - NARA - 545147.jpg|thumb|upright=0.80|left|Zidell shipbreaking yard in September 1972. The ship being broken up is the heavy cruiser [[USS Baltimore (CA-68)|''Baltimore'']].]] [[File:USS Kermit Roosevelt (ARG-16) underway at sea in December 1959 (1438097627689).jpg|thumb|{{USS|Kermit Roosevelt|ARG-16|6}}, a WWII-era naval auxiliary scrapped by Zidell]] Zidell traces its origins back to 1912, when Sam Zidell (real name – Yeschie Zajdell) migrated to the United States from the small village [[:uk:Смідин|Smidyn]] ([[Ukraine]]) and began selling secondhand machinery in [[Roseburg, Oregon]].<ref>{{cite web |title=zidell |url=http://zidell.com/home/ |access-date=July 11, 2016 |archive-date=July 6, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160706234824/http://zidell.com/home/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> The following year he moved to Portland, and set up the '''Zidell Machinery and Supply Company''', selling equipment and supplies to the region's expanding industrial base.

Shortly after the end of World War II, in 1946, Sam Zidell's son Emery, who now headed the business, purchased the shipyard of [[Commercial Iron Works]] in Portland and turned it into a shipbreaking yard, called the '''Zidell Ship Dismantling Company'''. With scrap steel in high demand for rebuilding America's industrial base in the postwar period, business boomed and by the 1960s the company, now known as '''Zidell Explorations, Inc.''', had become America's largest shipbreaker. In the course of its thirty years of shipbreaking operations, Zidell dismantled a total of 336 ships, including many World War II-era [[Liberty ship]]s and [[Auxiliary ship|naval auxiliaries]], and some warships.

From 1948, Zidell also began to recover industrial valves from its shipbreaking operations and resell them, a business that was eventually spun off into the '''Zidell Valve Corporation'''. Zidell Valves was sold in 1997 to [[Pon Holdings]] of the [[Netherlands]]. In 1955, Emery Zidell also founded Tube Forgings of America, Inc. (TFA), which supplies welding fittings for a wide variety of applications. TFA was the first US manufacturer of carbon steel welding fittings to earn an [[ISO 9002|ISO-9002]] certification and is one of the world's largest manufacturers of such fittings today.<ref>[http://www.zidell.com/images/inside/press/zidell_andersen_news_release.pdf Zidell Companies press release] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070823140559/http://www.zidell.com/images/inside/press/zidell_andersen_news_release.pdf |date=August 23, 2007 }}, October 30, 2003.</ref>

In 1960, Emery Zidell established the Zidell Marine Corporation, which used steel recovered from Zidell's shipbreaking business to build new barges. Demand soon outstripped the supply of recycled steel however, so Zidell began building barges from new steel. Between 1961 and 2017, when it discontinued its barge manufacturing, the company built 277 barges,<ref name="bus-trib-2017jun"/> varying in length between {{convert|150|ft|m}} and {{convert|400|ft|m|abbr=on}}.<ref name="oreg-2017jun16"/> During the final 15 years of production, most of Zidell's barges were [[double-hulled tanker]]s.<ref name="bus-trib-2017jun"/> At its peak, Zidell Marine was employing 90 workers in barge production at its South Waterfront complex.<ref name="oreg-2017jun16"/> In 2009, the total was 85, of which about 30 were administrative staff.<ref name="oreg-2009dec21">{{cite news |last=Frank |first=Ryan |title=Zidell ponders future of Portland barge-building business |newspaper=[[The Oregonian]] |date=December 21, 2009 |url=http://www.oregonlive.com/business/index.ssf/2009/12/zidell_ponders_future_of_portl.html |access-date=August 10, 2017}}</ref>

Since 1996, the company has been headed by Jay Zidell, the grandson of Sam Zidell.

In 2010, Emery Zidell’s grandson, Matt French, joined the company to explore and develop for Zidell Company.<ref>{{cite web |title=ZIDELL |url=http://zidell.com/home/ |access-date=July 11, 2016 |archive-date=July 6, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160706234824/http://zidell.com/home/ |url-status=dead }}</ref>

In July 2011, the Zidell Company took part in a project to clean up the shoreline of the [[Willamette River]]. The project budget was $20&nbsp;million and was directed at capping and removing dangerous contaminants, restoring wildlife habitat, and re-sloping and replanting the banks.<ref>{{cite news |last=Zaveri |first=Mihir |date=June 28, 2011 |title=Zidell Marine to begin Willamette River cleanup along South Waterfront |url=http://www.oregonlive.com/environment/index.ssf/2011/06/zidell_to_begin_cleanup_along.html |newspaper=The Oregonian |access-date=December 28, 2017 |quote=The more than $20 million cleanup will target 3,000 feet along the river near and under the Ross Island Bridge, capping and removing dangerous contaminants, and re-sloping and replanting the banks.}}</ref> Some of the land will be used for real estate development,<ref>{{cite news |last=Hammill |first=Luke |date=December 13, 2015 |title=South Waterfront booming again, fueled by Zidell deal, OHSU |url=http://www.oregonlive.com/business/index.ssf/2015/12/south_waterfront_booming_again.html |newspaper=The Oregonian |access-date=December 28, 2017 |quote=An agreement the Zidell family has reached with the City of Portland will fill in the last remaining undeveloped part of the area, and bring in 20 to 25 more buildings.}}</ref> including [[Zidell Yards]].<ref>[http://www.oregonlive.com/business/index.ssf/2016/12/zidell_yards_south_waterfront.html Zidell Yards unveils South Waterfront development plan]</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://zidell.com/the-yards/ |title=Zidell Marine Corporation |access-date=December 31, 2017 |archive-date=January 9, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180109192624/http://zidell.com/the-yards/ |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>[http://www.zidellyards.com/ Zidell Yards]</ref>

Today, Zidell Marine and Tube Forgings of America remain family-run businesses, headed by Emery's son Jay.<ref name="bus-trib-2017jun"/> The companies currently{{when|date=August 2024}} employ some 200 people in the [[Pacific Northwest]] region of the United States. As of mid-2017, Tube Forgings had 140 employees working in its plant, located on NW Front Avenue near Kittridge Avenue, in Portland's [[Northwest Industrial, Portland, Oregon|Northwest Industrial]] area.<ref name="bus-trib-2017jun"/>

In September 2016, the company announced that it was preparing to shut down its barge-building business permanently and discontinue use of its {{convert|33|acre|ha|adj=on}} [[South Waterfront]] property in 2017.<ref name="last barge"/> Zidell Marine launched its final barge on June 16, 2017.<ref name="bus-trib-2017jun"/><ref name="oreg-2017jun16"/> Subsequent removal of equipment from the site was expected to take several months. A separate barge-leasing business is to continue operating.<ref name="last barge"/><ref name="bus-trib-2017jun"/>

==Footnotes== {{reflist}}

==References== *[https://web.archive.org/web/20100114224924/http://www.zidell.com/story.html Historical Overview] - Zidell Companies official website. *[https://web.archive.org/web/20080705105003/http://www.southwaterfront.com/wp/wp-content/themes/swf/subnav_desc/newsletters/SWF_Winter_07_News.pdf The Long Haul] - ''South Waterfront Community Current'', Winter 2007 edition. *[https://web.archive.org/web/20110723022052/http://www.deq.state.or.us/lq/cu/nwr/zidell/StaffReport.pdf Zidell Waterfront Property] - Staff Report, DEQ Voluntary Cleanup Program (PDF file 3.4 Mbytes). *[https://web.archive.org/web/20080316012939/http://www.ussnicholas.org/1971scrapping.html Scrapping of USS ''Nicholas''] - Naval History website. *[https://web.archive.org/web/20081120084957/http://www.shipbuildinghistory.com/history/shipyards/5small/active/zidell.htm Zidell Marine] - Shipbuilding History website. *[https://web.archive.org/web/20110724135132/http://www.shipbuildinghistory.com/history/shipyards/5small/inactive/commercial.htm Commercial Iron Works] - Shipbuilding History website.

==External links== *{{Commons category-inline|Zidell Marine}}

[[Category:Shipbuilding companies of Oregon]] [[Category:Companies based in Portland, Oregon]] [[Category:Privately held companies based in Oregon]] [[Category:1916 establishments in Oregon]] [[Category:American companies established in 1916]] [[Category:Manufacturing companies established in 1916]] [[Category:Family-owned companies of the United States]]