Ohio Steel Industry Advisory Council
Spring 1995
Commission
backs bill
Executive addresses group
House Bill 106 at a glance
LTV ODNR boosts campaign
Ohio steelmakers production
On the Steel Front
Steel Front sidebars
Steel recycling highlights.html
Applications spark stainless market Commission
Backs Bill Requiring
Cost/Benefit Analysis of Environmental Rules The Ohio
Steel Industry Advisory Commission has expressed its support for House
Bill 106, a proposed state law that would mandate a cost/benefit analysis
of any proposed environmental law or rule. The Commission,
a group of steel, union, education and government leaders, also provided
recommendations to strengthen the bill, introduced by Rep. Ray Sines,
a Republican from Perry. "Ohio
needs legislation like House Bill 106 in order to preserve and improve
the competitive strength of Ohio industry," said Charles H. West, executive
vice president at The Timken Company, Canton, and co-chairman of the 16-member
Commission. "The steel industry is a strong advocate of environmental
protection, but we question the value of legislation that can place huge
cost burdens on industry while providing no measurable benefit to the
environment. "We believe
a comprehensive cost/benefit analysis of environmental rules and legislation
would encourage a more careful assessment of their value," West said. The bill,
introduced in February, was passed by the House Energy and Environment
Committee in March and by the full House in early April. In supporting
the bill, the Steel Commission adopted a resolution that recommends the
Legislature go even further in discouraging unnecessary legislation and
regulation. The Commission favors a requirement that the cost/benefit
analysis justify environmental rules and laws before they can be adopted. "We think
a cost/benefit analysis would be very valuable in itself, but we'd like
to take the concept further by using that analysis to determine whether
the law or rule should exist at all," said Harold V. Kelly, executive
vice president at Republic Engineered Steels, Inc., Massillon, and chairman
of the Commission's government relations committee. Kelly
added that unnecessary environmental regulation is harmful to the overall
economy of the state and can make Ohio companies less competitive than
their rivals in other states and other nations. It can also discourage
industrial companies from locating in the Buckeye State, he said.
[back to top] Steel
Executive Addresses
Large Group in Toledo More
than 100 people recently listened as Don Caiazza, Ohio Steel Industry
Advisory Commission member and president and chief executive officer of
Copperweld Steel Company, spoke about the Ohio steel industry at Good
Morning, Toledo, a breakfast sponsored by the Toledo Area Chamber of Commerce. "Any
organization in Ohio would benefit from a speech on the state of steel
in the Buckeye State," said Bob Ralston, a member of the Steel Commission's
Communications Committee and manager of marketing at USS/KOBE Steel Co.,
Lorain. "Our industry has a tremendous impact on the economy of the state,
and we have plenty of labor and management representatives who love to
talk steel." If you
know of an Ohio organization interested in an informative 20-minute presentation
on the Ohio steel industry (including a video), call the Ohio Steel Information
Line at 1-800-OHIOSTL (644-6785).
[back to top] House
Bill 106 at a Glance The bill
would require state agencies responsible for any new environmental rule
to do the following before the rule is implemented: - 3 Consult with
organizations representing political subdivisions affected;
- 3 Analyze the costs
of complying with the rule; and
- 3 Consider scientific
documentation of the need for the rule, its benefits and the feasibility
of complying with it.
[back to top]
LTV,
ODNR Boost Appliance
Recycling Campaign State
officials, steel industry representatives and Ohio scrap dealers recently
completed the Ohio Appliance Recycling Round-Up, a month-long campaign
to encourage the recycling of steel appliances in the Buckeye State. The Round-Up
encouraged Ohio consumers to rope up their used washers, dryers, refrigerators
and other appliances and herd them into one of 12 northeastern Ohio collection
sites on April 1. In addition,
more than 50 counties in the state were encouraged to step up current
collection programs. Preliminary figures show more than 2,000 appliances
were collected statewide through the ?rst three weeks of April. "The
immediate goal of this effort is to provide an opportunity to recycle
used appliances, but the long-term objective of Ohio's steel producers
is to make consumers aware of permanent appliance recycling options,"
said A. Cole Tremain, vice president of industrial relations and public
affairs at LTV Steel Co. in Cleveland, the primary sponsor of the event. Tremain
noted that steel comprises about 75 percent of the average appliance.
Appliance recycling reduces the volume of waste dumped in landfills and
provides a good source of quality scrap for the steel industry, he said. Tremain
helped kick off the month-long campaign on March 31, along with Don Anderson,
director of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources; Bill White of Atlas
Iron Processors Inc.; William Lowery, president of the Institute for Scrap
Recycling Industries' Northern Ohio Chapter; and Gary Gallo of the Steel
Recycling Institute.
[back to top] Ohio
Steelmakers Produced 17
Percent of America's Steel in '94 Preliminary
year-end figures from the nation's steel producers show the Buckeye State
boosted its raw steel production by 3.5 percent last year and accounted
for 17 percent of the nation's total 1994 production. Ohio
steelmakers produced 16,663,978 tons of raw steel last year, compared
to 16,100,829 tons in 1993, according to statistics from the American
Iron and Steel Institute (AISI). As a
result, the Buckeye State increased its share of the nation's total steel
production from 16.5 percent in 1993 to 17 percent last year. "The
figures remind us of Ohio's stature as a steel-producing center and the
importance of our industry to the economy of the Buckeye State," said
Charles H. West, co-chairman of the Ohio Steel Industry Advisory Commission
and both executive vice president and president-steel at The Timken Company,
Canton. Ohio
remains the nation's second-leading steel-producing state. Indiana is
first, having produced 21,045,050 tons of steel last year, or 21.5 percent
of the U.S. total. The AISI's
preliminary figures indicate that domestic raw steel production in 1994
totaled 97,894,728 tons, up from 97,877,199 tons produced in 1993.
[back to top] Gov.
Voinovich Hails Steel's
Impact on Ohio Economy Governor
George V. Voinovich helped Ohio celebrate more than 100 years of manufacturing
last month by pointing out the steel industry's importance to the economic
well-being of the state. Voinovich
and LTV Steel Chairman/CEO David H. Hoag addressed nearly 100 people,
including approximately 50 legislators, at a Columbus breakfast meeting
sponsored by the Ohio Steel Industry Advisory Commission. "Today,
Ohio's steel industry is stronger than ever," Governor Voinovich said.
"In fact, our iron and steel industry employs more than 30,000 Ohioans,
brought about mainly through joint partnerships of business, labor and
government. "I would
like to thank the members of the Steel Commission for their hard work
over the past four years, and I also want to thank the steel industry
for the faith that you've demonstrated in Ohio and our workers," said
the Governor. Governor
Voinovich also said he would work with steel and labor leaders to discourage
unnecessary environmental and other regulations that hamper the industry's
competitiveness. The breakfast
was part of the Steel Commission's ongoing effort to educate legislators
and state agency officials about the economic impact of the steel industry
and the effect of public policy on steel producers. Steel
serves as a hub for Ohio's burgeoning auto, appliance and steel distribution
industries. Steel producers also are the largest purchasers of electric
power in the Buckeye State. LTV Steel's
Hoag, who also is vice chairman of the American Iron and Steel Institute,
said that steel producers are competing not only against rivals in other
states, but against foreign companies. "Let
me acknowledge that there remains much work to be done if we are to keep
Ohio at the head of the pack in the global competitiveness race," Hoag
said. The Steel
Commission plans additional breakfast meetings as part of its educational
program, said Harold V. Kelly, executive vice president at Republic Engineered
Steels, Inc. in Massillon. "We appreciate
the sincere interest of the Governor, state legislators and state agency
officials in our industry," Kelly said. "We are committed to keeping them
up-to-date on what we're doing as an industry and on what Ohio's public
policy means to our competitiveness."
[back to top] Steel
Front Sidebars WCI Steel,
Inc. welcomed more than 60 builders from the Youngstown-Warren area to
a February seminar on building homes with steel. The educational affair
was part of an effort by WCI and other steelmakers to point out the benefits
of using steel in home building. Republic
Engineered Steels, Inc., Massillon, has announced plans for an initial
public stock offering. The com-pany said the offering of 8 million shares
will represent about 40 percent of Republic's outstanding shares, with
the remainder owned by an employee stock ownership plan. Armco
Inc. has reopened its Dover galvanizing facility ahead of schedule following
an extensive modernization. The plant, a supplier of galvanized steel,
employs more than 70 people. Wheeling-Pittsburgh
Steel Corp.'s parent company, WHX Corp., has announced its acquisition
of Unimast, Inc., a maker of steel framing and related accessories for
residential and commercial construction. Unimast will continue to operate
independently, maintaining its operations in Ohio, Illinois, Georgia,
Texas and New Jersey. AK Steel
stock recently began trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the
symbol AKS. The company, formerly known as Armco Steel, went public in
April 1994 and had been trading on the NASDAQ National Market System.
[back to top] Highlights
of Steel's Recycling
Success Nationwide in 1994 - Steel cans: Recycling
rate reached an all-time high of 53 percent, with more than 1.55 million
tons of steel recycled.
- Steel aerosol cans:
Recycling more than tripled in 1994. More than 1,800 U.S. communities
are currently accepting these containers for recycling.
- Appliances: Recycling
rate reached a record 70.2 percent, with 38 million appliances recycled,
accounting for more than 1.9 million tons of steel.
- Automobiles: More
than 12 million tons of steel were recovered from recycled automobiles.
This amount is equal to 95.2 percent of the steel used last year to
build new automobiles.
[back to top]
Automotive,
Household Applications
Spark Stainless Market An improving
economy and successful efforts to gain market share from competing materials
have driven up demand for stainless steel in Ohio and elsewhere. The Specialty
Steel Industry of North America reported record stainless steel shipments
last year and expects strong business conditions to continue well into
1995. "Corrosion
resistance, high strength and good wear characteristics, coupled with
ease of maintenance, result in life-cycle cost advantages and continue
to help the stainless steel market grow," said Jay Parr, general manager
of the Coshocton operations of Armco Inc., a leading producer of stainless
sheet and strip. Stainless
steel is most commonly recognized as the material of choice for cookware,
cutlery, automotive wheel covers and eating utensils. It also has a host
of critical industrial, medical and energy-related uses not always obvious
to the consumer. Beyond
serving traditional markets for stainless steel, Ohio producers are touting
the product for new applications - most notably, car exhaust systems.
Stainless shipments to this market more than doubled nationwide between
1990 and 1994, according to statistics tracked by Armco. This market is
expected to grow another 25 percent by 1996. Other
growing applications for stainless include horizontal-axis washing machines,
decorative panels for residential kitchens, air bag components, fuel systems
and gaskets. Armco,
with plants in Coshocton, Dover, Mansfield and Zanesville, Ohio, has in
recent years refocused its business on stainless sheet and strip products.
Armco recently started up a $100 million continuous caster at its Mansfield
plant, which is producing carbon steel and will start casting stainless
steel later this year. Republic
Engineered Steels, Inc., Massillon, recently created a specialty steels
division to increase its growing capabilities in the stainless bar business.
Republic recently purchased Armco's stainless and specialty steel facility
in Baltimore, Maryland, and plans to supply it with semi-finished steel
from its large Canton, Ohio plant. "The
capabilities of this forging and finishing facility, coupled with our
stainless melt shop in Canton, make an excellent match and position us
well to grow our stainless business," said Harold V. Kelly, Republic's
executive vice president.
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