Schnitzer Steel's Cascade Steel Rolling Mills announced another 30 layoffs late last week.
The McMinnville, Oregon-based long product minimill has laid off a total of 150 employees since last December, according to a local news report. The latest round of layoffs, announced last Friday, includes workers throughout a range of departments, including production and admin.
Cascade president Jeff Dyck says that while the company has exercised a number of cost-cutting measures, steel demand continues to be extremely soft and the company has seen no up-tick in either residential or commercial construction. Furthermore, the US steel industry has seen little impact from federal or state stimulus efforts, said Dyck.
Last month, Cascade's parent company, Portland, Oregon-based Schnitzer Steel, reported a steep decline in profit for the three months ended August 31, 2009 when compared to the same quarter of last year. While the revenues of Schnitzer's Steel Manufacturing Business, Cascade, during the quarter rose 41 percent compared to the third fiscal quarter of 2009, Cascade's revenues were down 64 percent when compared to last year, with Schnitzer citing continued weak demand for steel in the US West Coast markets. As a result of low production volumes and higher scrap costs, Schnitzer predicts Cascade's margins for its current quarter (which ends November 31, 2009) will be negative.