AK Steel will stop production at its Middletown Works plant in Ohio as of Friday, March 20, 2009 for a total of 45 days. The shutdown period will be used to rebuild Middletown's blast furnace, which has produced 50 million net tons of iron since it was first installed in 1984.
The firm's spokesman, Alan McCoy, explained that AK workers and contractors will be replacing the hearth, which is the bottom inside section of the furnace where molten iron collects. The total cost of this refurbishment has not been publicized; however, the firm's CEO, Jim Wainscott, had previously mentioned it to be in the "tens of millions."
The news in question is not surprising as the company had already announced its plans to use the current inactive steel market to do maintenance work. Recently AK Steel recalled about 600 employees to restart its Ashland, Kentucky blast furnace, which was idled (excluding its coke plant) back in November 2008 due to lack of demand, to prepare for Middletown's shutdown.
"At this point, we cannot say definitively how many employees will be laid off. That will change week-to-week, and also will be determined by other business conditions," McCoy added. The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers Local Lodge 1943 has been working with the company to minimize the impact on hourly employees as more than 100 workers are currently laid off from Middletown, said the union's president Scott Rich.
AK Steel also mentioned that for the first time in history both of its coke plants at Middletown and Ashland received the industry's top safety award from the American Coke and Coal Chemicals Institute.