ATI to idle 2 Pa. operations
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Allegheny Technologies Inc. said Thursday it will idle two of its Pennsylvania steelmaking operations because of challenging business conditions.
The Pittsburgh-based specialty steel producer said in a news release it will idle the standard stainless melt shop and sheet finishing operations at its Midland facility by January.
The company said it also will idle by April its grain-oriented electrical operations, including the Bagdad facility.
“The future restart of the Midland and GOES operations, respectively, will depend on future business conditions and ATI’s ability to earn an acceptable return on invested capital on products produced at these operations,” the company stated.
The company did not state how many jobs would be impacted by the idlings.
It said it is also conducting “an impairment review of affected long-lived asset” in the flat-rolled products business and will provide an update on the review prior to its January news release announcing fourth quarter 2015 financial results.
“The actions announced today are the result of an extensive strategic review and analysis of the current and expected medium-term market conditions affecting our U.S. flat rolled products operations,” said ATI President and CEO Richard Harshman. “These actions are designed to return the FRP segment to profitability as quickly as possible and execute our strategy for sustainable long-term profitable growth.”
Harshman said the actions announced streamline the company flat rolled product operations and “to better focus our efforts on the products and global markets that require ATI’s technical and manufacturing leadership.
That included ATI’s hot-rolling and processing facility, which produces high-value product lines such as nickel-based and specialty alloys, titanium and titanium alloys, precision rolled strip products and engineered strip.
“Market conditions for our commodity stainless steel products have been challenging for an extended period and have continued to deteriorate throughout 2015, with further deterioration during the fourth quarter,” he said, blaming the condition on global excess capacity, which in turn led to unfairly traded imports in the U.S. market.