AK Steel announces price increase, meets with union

AK Steel announced this week it will increase base prices for all carbon steel products by $50 /nt ($55 /mt or $2.50 cwt.) for all orders accepted for shipment May 15, 2006 and later. The company cited increased demand as well as higher costs for steelmaking inputs as reasons for the price increase. In other AK news, the company plans to meet negotiators from the Armco Employees Independent Federation Thursday morning for another session to negotiate a new contract for the locked out Middletown Works employees. The two sides met twice over the weekend - Saturday, AK presented counterproposals to portions of the union's proposed contract, and on Sunday, the union presented counterproposals to portions of AK's proposed contract.