AK Steel Holding Corporation's chairman and CEO, James Wainscott painted a rather gloomy picture of the near-term fate of the US steel market in a recent interview with local newspaper, Hamilton Journal News published Thursday.
Mr. Wainscott told the paper that although the company has already laid off roughly 1,000 of its 6,500 employees, it might end up laying off double that amount before the steel industry starts recuperating. On a more positive note, Mr. Wainscott, who also serves as the chairman of the American Iron and Steel Institute, said the company will take advantage of the downturn to do a major maintenance job on the mill's blast furnace at its Middletown Works operations.
Also discussed by Mr. Wainscott were the low demand conditions that have led the company to take aggressive cost-reducing measures, including the layoffs, temporary idling of facilities and reducing salaried employee pay by five percent. Mr. Wainscott also expressed his support of the "buy American" provisions in the federal stimulus plan, calling them, "common sense."