American Spring Wire to shutter Illinois plant

US wire manufacturer American Spring Wire has announced that due to lack of orders, it will close its Kankakee, Illinois facility in two months.

“This action is a necessary response to the unprecedented weakness in our tempered spring wire order book,” Mr. William Snyder, ASW’s Executive Vice President, said. “All ASW – Kankakee spring wire customers that use tempered wires in sizes greater than 120 inches will be serviced from our Bedford Heights, Ohio factory without any interruption in service.”

Mr. Snyder went on to say that with the recent capital expenditures in the company's Bedford Heights tempering department, it has ample capacity to service the Kankakee order book and its customers will continue to receive excellent service at competitive prices. ASW will also assist its customers that buy finer wire in finding another supplier.

“We’re very sorry to have to make this decision,” said Mr. Timothy Selhorst, President and CEO of ASW. “The Kankakee employees have done a superb job of making wire over the years and adapting to new and difficult market requirements. I look forward to a set of economic circumstances and market opportunities to give this operation the chance to serve wire markets again in the future.”

The facility will not close immediately as, under provisions of the applicable law, employees must be notified of such decisions 60 days prior to the closure. ASW will continue producing some wire at Kankakee over the next several weeks to complete customer orders and deplete wire rod inventories. The company says that the Kankakee facility is already operating at substantially reduced hours due to recent sharp downturn in business.

ASW manufactures valve quality and commercial wire in carbon and alloy steel grades. Manufacturing processes include surface preparation, die drawing, cold rolling, patenting, annealing, and oil tempering. The company also produces PC strand for the pre-stressed/post-tensioned concrete market. ASW's Kankakee factory, opened in 1980, specializes in the production of fine music wire and oil-tempered spring wire, primarily used in the automotive markets.