• Mittal Steel Idles Blast Furnaces
• Wheeling-Pitt Bids Goodbye
  to 105-Year-Old Blast Furnace
• Maverick Buys 3 Companies,
  Boosts Coiled Tubing Capacity
• Ampco to Cast Bigger Billets
• Gerdau Locks Out Workers
  to End Contract Stalemate
• Quality Bar to Expand Line
• LaBarge Forms Joint Venture
• Concast Opens New Warehouse
• Alcoa Plans to Mine Coal
• Rath, Gibson Merge in Tubing Market
• Alcoa Closes U.S. Plant,
  Opens European Center
• Redman Changes Name to Tube Source
• Obituary: George Tippins
• Breifs
• People

Mittal Steel Idles Blast Furnaces
In an effort to match its output with inventory adjustments occurring in steel consuming markets, Mittal Steel USA started cooling C-6 furnace at its Cleveland plant May 5 in preparation for gunning of refractory material to shore up its lining. The work is routine maintenance that had been scheduled for June. Normally, the furnace produces about 1,500 tons of iron daily.

In addition, the company is idling H-3 blast furnace on the west side of the Indiana Harbor plant in East Chicago, Ind. The furnace will return to production when business conditions demand its 2,000-tons-a-day output. The No. 6 blast furnace on that plant’s east side has been idle since March.

“The underlying economy is still strong,” says Louis L. Schorsch, CEO. “However, the excess inventory in the distribution sector that was built up in the last half of 2004 is still being worked down. Given that, it is appropriate that we adjust our production and use this opportunity to undertake necessary maintenance and improvements.”

Mittal names facilities
Formed April 15 by combining the former operations of Ispat Inland Inc. and International Steel Group, Mittal Steel USA has settled upon names for its locations across the United States.

“While location names are a very small piece of the integration, they are important to the people who work in the locations and the communities where they lie,” Schorsch says.

In Illinois, there is Mittal Steel USA-Hennepin; Mittal Steel North America, based in Chicago, which markets bar products; and Mittal Steel USA-Riverdale. In Indiana, there is Mittal Steel USA-Burns Harbor; Mittal Steel USA-Burns Harbor Plate; Mittal Steel USA-Indiana Harbor; and Mittal Steel USA-Indiana Harbor Bar Products.

Mittal Steel USA-Sparrows Point is near Baltimore. Mittal Steel USA-Minorca Mine is in Virginia, Minn. Mittal Steel USA-Lackawanna is on Lake Erie near Buffalo, N.Y. Mittal Steel USA-Newton, in Newton, N.C., burns plate.

Mittal Steel USA-Cleveland is a 950-acre integrated steelmaking complex that can produce 3.8 million tons of hot- and cold-rolled sheet a year. Mittal Steel USA-Columbus coats and slits flat-roll. Mittal Steel USA-Warren, in Ohio, consists of coke batteries. Mittal Steel USA-Coatesville, and Mittal Steel USA-Conshohocken, both in Pennsylvania, produce plate products. Mittal Steel USA-Steelton makes rail, specialty blooms and flat bars.

Mittal Steel USA-Georgetown makes wire rod in South Carolina. Mittal Steel USA-Weirton, in West Virginia, manufactures hot- and cold-rolled, galvanized and tin-plated products. Mittal Steel USA-Trinidad produces hot briquetted iron.

The company also is a partner in the following ventures, whose names are not changing: AK-ISG Steel Coating Co, Double G Coatings Co., Hibbing Taconite Co., I/N Tek, I/N Kote, Indiana Pickling and Processing Co., and Steel Construction Systems.

Wheeling-Pitt Bids Goodbye
to 105-Year-Old Blast Furnace
Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel Corp. permanently idled its No. 1 Blast Furnace on May 5. The shutdown ended more than 100 years of service by one of the oldest blast furnaces running in the United States. The company continues to operate its No. 5 blast furnace, along with its new Consteel electric arc furnace, to produce steel for its caster and hot-strip mill.

The shutdown comes as the company transforms itself into a steelmaker that uses both integrated and EAF technology. Its Consteel furnace produced its first heat last November. Hot metal charging was introduced into the furnace in April, making it the only EAF in the western hemisphere to adopt this practice.

With current production levels from the EAF and sustained use of its No. 5 blast furnace and basic oxygen furnace, Wheeling-Pittsburgh will have ample capacity to serve its steel customers, company officials say.

The No. 1 furnace began operating in 1899 as part of LaBelle Iron Works, Steubenville, Ohio.

Maverick Buys 3 Companies,
Boosts Coiled Tubing Capacity
Maverick Tube Corp. plans to acquire three tube mills: Tubos del Caribe S.A., a Colombian manufacturer of oil country tubular goods and line pipe; the equity interests in Consorcio Metalurgico Nacional S.A., a Colombian manufacturer of electrical conduit and other pipe and tube products; and Advance Corp., Houston, which distributes OCTG and electrical conduit.

The purchase price totals $186 million, including about $30 million in assumed debt. The acquisitions create a foundation for future growth in Latin America; include product lines with respected brand names; and provide efficient, low-cost production capacity adjacent to world-class ports, company officials say.

Maverick expects these three businesses to contribute approximately $40 million in annual earnings at their current run rate, excluding synergies.

C. Robert Bunch, chairman and CEO, says the acquisitions satisfy Maverick’s goal of expanding its geographic presence in both energy and industrial businesses. “Each of these companies has an outstanding reputation in its home markets, a demonstrated ability to export its products to North America and other regions, and an impressive trend of growth and profitability.”

Separately, Maverick began work on a $12 million project to expand the capacity of its Precision Tube coiled tubing facility in Houston by more than 50 percent. The company expects to complete the expansion in the first quarter of 2006.

Dennis Dunlap, president of Precision Tube/SeaCAT, says that in the past three years, worldwide demand for the company’s coiled tubing products has grown steadily “and we anticipate this trend to continue.”

im Cowan, president and COO, says coiled tubing is “a very exciting product line for us. Our engineers continue to work with engineers from oil and gas and major service companies around the world to develop new applications and to improve the technology in existing applications.”

Meanwhile, Maverick sold certain assets of its hollow structural sections product line to Atlas Tube Inc. The sale included Maverick’s HSS inventory and customer lists in the U.S. and Canada. The parties anticipate that Maverick will continue to produce HSS products for Atlas at its Hickman, Ark., HSS mill for some time after the sale closes.

Ampco to Cast Bigger Billets
Ampco Metal Inc. is installing a new vertical billet caster in its Arlington Heights, Ill., facility.

The new caster, scheduled to begin production later this summer, replaces a horizontal casting line, and will give Ampco the capability to handle larger melts and cast larger diameter billets, says Ken Wlodkowski, director of marketing and sales.

Ampco is also opening a new warehouse in Tianjin, China, to service the many automotive parts suppliers, and other customers, that have relocated to Asia. “It’s important for us to have a presence all over the world,” Wlodkowski says.

Ampco is an international marketer of copper-based alloys. Now owned by Ampco Metal S.A. based in Switzerland, the company is working hard to recast itself as a leaner, more customer-focused supplier of custom-engineered aluminum bronzes and precision machined parts, Wlodkowski says.

Gerdau Locks Out Workers to End Contract Stalemate
Gerdau Ameristeel halted operations May 26 and locked out workers at its Beaumont, Texas, wire rod mill in an effort to “encourage” United Steelworkers of America members to vote on a new labor pact.

Gerdau Ameristeel and the plant’s 265-member union workforce have been working without a labor agreement since the old contract expired March 31. Negotiations, under way since January, failed to bring the two sides together, to the frustration of company management.

Philip Bell, director of human resources, says the company exercised this legal provision to end the uncertainty both sides face by not having a new agreement. “We are eager to get the mill reopened as soon as an agreement is reached. We want our employees back at work as soon as possible,” he says.

The company purchased the Texas mill in October 2004 from North Star Steel Co., and has earmarked more than $25 million to upgrade mill operations pending a long-term labor contract.

Meanwhile, Gerdau Ameristeel reached agreement on a four-year contract with United Steelworkers Local 8918 members at its mill in Cambridge, Ontario. The new contract extends through May 15, 2009, and covers about 190 employees. The Cambridge mill produces steel squares, rounds, angles, unequal angles, flats, channels and rebar.

In other action, Gerdau Ameristeel has built an $8.8 million, 10,500-square-meter warehouse at its Whitby, Ontario, steelworks. Combined with its three existing warehouses, the mill can now store up to 80,000 tons of finished steel, ready to ship to customers by rail and truck.

The facility includes two drive-through loading bays, which increases the capacity from 50 to 70 trucks per hour, a transfer conveyor that connects all four warehouses, and 15-ton capacity overhead cranes that load bundles of steel onto flatbed trucks or into railcars.

Quality Bar to Expand Line
Quality Bar, a Struthers, Ohio, supplier of cold-finished carbon and alloy bar, hopes to begin offering stainless steel products by the end of the year.

Quality Bar is a subsidiary of Casey Equipment Corp., Pittsburgh, Pa., which buys and rebuilds used mill equipment. It was Casey’s acquisition of an idled cold-finishing mill from Nucor Steel 10 years ago that led to the launch of Quality Bar, explains Carl Ezzo, general manager.

Today, the company’s 14 employees operate two lines—one small-diameter line cold finishing bar from 3/4-inch to 3 inches, and another larger diameter line handling 3-inch to 8-inch bar.

The keys to Quality Bar’s success include the low initial investment in the bar mills, a facility with rail access close to heat-treating services, and strong relationships with leading hot-rolled bar suppliers, Ezzo says.

LaBarge Forms Joint Venture
LaBarge Pipe & Steel Co., Houston, has formed a joint venture with Canadoil Group, effectively positioning LaBarge as the only major distributor of steel line pipe to also offer a full inventory of high-yield fittings and fusion bond epoxy coating from one source.
In its first action, LaBarge has taken a significant inventory position in high-yield pipe fittings from Canadoil. LaBarge is housing the inventory in Houston. LaBarge already has a pipe distribution center and a fusion bond epoxy coating plant in the area.

Through this joint venture, LaBarge will improve the distribution system for supplying X-Grade line pipe, HY fittings and FBE coatings to customers in the oil and gas industry. LaBarge will also be able to coat the fittings at the industrial coating plant using its new FBE coating line opened in April.

Pierre L. LaBarge III, president and CEO, says that adding high-yield fittings to LaBarge’s core product offering serves a need in the market for comprehensive pipeline construction solutions.

Concast Opens New Warehouse
Concast Metal Products Co., Mars, Pa., is seeing the benefits of its new Birmingham, Ohio, warehouse. Concast is a producer of continuous-cast specialty copper alloys.
Concast opened the 45,000-square-foot warehouse and distribution facility Oct. 1. The Midwestern location, with easy access to the Ohio turnpike, allows the company to get product to service centers and other customers all over the country more effectively, says President Al Barbour.

The warehouse houses a new inventory management system that speeds material selection. Coupled with Concast’s proprietary software, the system brings a new level of efficiency to the processing of customer orders, Barbour says.

Alcoa Plans to Mine Coal
Alcoa Inc. will invest $45 million to purchase equipment and the rights to mine coal from Vigo Coal Co. to power its aluminum smelter in Warrick, Ind. The investment also calls for the addition of a coal preparation facility and material-handling infrastructure to enable transport of coal via railcar to the smelter’s power plant.

The coal is expected to be available for use by Warrick by July 2006.

Alcoa will purchase the rights to mine 2,500 acres in the reserve at the Friendsville Mine near Mount Carmel, Ill., for 10 years, with the opportunity to expand from there. The mine will be able to produce about 1 million tons of coal a year, or 45 percent of the power plant’s fuel requirement. Vigo Coal will provide mining services to Alcoa.

Rath, Gibson Merge In Tubing Market
Rath Manufacturing Inc., Janesville, Wis., and Gibson Tube Inc., North Branch, N.J., have merged to form RathGibson.

“The combination of our tremendous talents, energies and resources gives our clients unparalleled products, service and support,” says Harley Kaplan, president and CEO of RathGibson.

In order to get new products to its customers faster, RathGibson has implemented a new cooperative development process. The increased global network of sales offices and technical expertise will allow the company to better concentrate on clients and their needs.

RathGibson will continue to supply nickel alloys, sub-sea umbilicals, high purity tubing, and oil field products tubing. The company will launch a new Web site this summer, www.RathGibson.com.

Alcoa Closes U.S. Plant, Opens European Center
Alcoa Inc. will close its Hawesville, Ky., automotive casting facility by the end of 2005. The plant closing, which will affect 158 people, is a result of excess capacity in Alcoa’s automotive castings manufacturing system.

Allen Zwierzchowski, president of Alcoa Automotive Castings, explains that the facility is operating at less than 20 percent of its capacity. “With certain program contracts winding down, the plant is no longer viable from a business perspective.”
Alcoa plans to sell the facility.

Meanwhile, in Europe, Alcoa’s AFL Automotive business has opened a new development center. The facility in Plzen, Czech Republic, will design and develop high-quality automotive electric and electronic distribution systems for European automakers.
“This new location will primarily serve Skoda, and enable AFL Automotive to attract new customers in the emerging Central and Eastern European automotive markets,” says Martin Freiberger, senior vice president, AFL Automotive-Europe.

AFL Automotive has had a presence in the Czech market since 2001, supplying Skoda, Volkswagen, DaimlerChrysler and others.

Redman Changes Name to Tube Source
Redman Manufacturing Co., Ferndale, Mich., has changed its name to Tube Source, to reflect its new marketing direction.

Brad VanderBrug, president of the company, says Tube Source will be a one-stop-shop in the tube supply chain. “We decided to change the name to better fit the strategic direction of the company,” he says. “We’ve been looking at the market and realize we need to meet the changing environment of the business.”

Becoming a one-stop shop for tube fabricators means that Tube Source will significantly expand the company’s offerings with a wide range of sizes and types of tubing, as well as different styles of cuts. Tube Source will also be strategically aligned with a number of mills to establish just-in-time and warehousing programs for its customers.
Redman Manufacturing, established in 1945, was purchased by VanderBrug in 1996.

Briefs
U.S. Steel Corp. took its Gary Works No. 13 blast furnace offline in late May, rather than on Aug. 1 as previously announced, to ensure an orderly transition to a more efficient major rebuild. This will allow the company to run its four other domestic steel plants at more efficient levels and will keep flat-rolled inventories in line with customer needs. Company officials expect domestic flat-roll shipments for the second quarter to be about 7 percent lower than the first quarter, which should result in annual shipments that are lower than the company’s most recent projection of 14.5 million tons.

AK Steel advised its flat-rolled carbon steel customers that a $213-per-ton surcharge would be added to invoices for products shipped in June. AK Steel has also advised its electrical steel customers that a $170-per-ton surcharge will be added to invoices for electrical steel products shipped in June.

Universal Stainless & Alloy Products Inc. will install a sixth vacuum arc remelt (VAR) furnace at its Bridgeville facility, to be operational in October. Vacuum arc remelting is a value-added process required to produce high-quality grades of steel primarily for aerospace applications. The company has five VAR furnaces in Titusville, Pa. The project, including equipment purchase and installation, will cost up to $2.5 million. The decision to add a sixth furnace was in response to immediate need and to expected demand based on customer and industry forecasts for the next three to five years. The company’s backlog to melt VAR products increased by more than 10 percent in April alone, despite running the existing furnaces around the clock.

Nucor Corp.’s rebar fabrication joint venture with Ambassador Steel Corp.—Nufab Rebar LLC, formed in January—has acquired Lulich Steel LLC, a fabricator serving the reinforcing steel construction markets of Louisiana, Mississippi and the panhandle of Florida. Nufab Rebar intends to grow both through acquisitions and greenfield projects. Dan DiMicco, Nucor’s vice chairman, president and CEO, says, “Nufab Rebar’s plan provides an opportunity to further grow our downstream integration from our bar mills into a value-added process.”

IPSCO Inc.’s steelworks in Montpelier, Iowa, sustained an electrical short in a motor located in the rolling mill that led to a six-day maintenance outage, which resulted in lower production and reduced commercial volumes. The company produced more slab during the rolling mill outage. The company expects to ship orders on schedule.

Northwest Pipe Co. was selected to supply about $14 million of welded steel pipe to L.H. Woods & Sons, Inc. of Vista, Calif. The pipe is for the Del Dios Reline Pipeline #4 project for the San Diego County Water Authority. Northwest Pipe will supply about 22,400 feet of 93-inch-diameter steel pipe. Deliveries were to begin in June.

Xing Cheng Specialty Steel Co. Ltd., Jiangyin City, China, has contracted Morgan Construction Co. to modify its No. 2 bar mill with a bar reducing/sizing mill. The purpose of the upgrade is to improve the quality tolerance of the mill. When complete, the bar mill will initially roll 25 mm to 60 mm rounds, which will later be reduced down to 20 mm in size. The mill will also produce 6 mm- to 25 mm-thick by 50 mm- to 140 mm-wide flats.

People
Steel Dynamics Inc. promoted Theresa Wagler to vice president and corporate controller. She has served in the corporate accounting and finance area for over six years. Prior to this appointment, Wagler was chief accounting officer and corporate controller.

Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel Corp. promoted three management employees to newly created positions. Ron Shoemaker, manager of engineering, EAF Project, was promoted to general manager, engineering and environmental control. Steve Guzy, division manager of hot-strip rolling and processing, was promoted to general manager, primary operations. Glenn Steed, division manager of steelmaking, was promoted to general manager, finishing operations.

Alcoa Inc. Executive Vice President Ricardo Belda has taken on the additional responsibility of leading the company’s Global Extruded and End Products business. He succeeds Mario Longhi, who has left the company. Belda will continue to serve as president of the European Region for Alcoa and also will continue to direct the integration of the newly acquired Russian fabricating facilities into the company.

Danell McEuen has retired from National Bronze & Metals Inc., after a 17-year career as the company’s top producing inside sales representative, to pursue personal interests. “Danell had a unique way of letting customers know how important they are to the company,” says Phil Meehan, vice president of sales. “She will be greatly missed by her customers and colleagues.”