Ohio Steel Industry Advisory Council
Fall 1996
Steel
at Work
Quarterly report text
Steel Front sidebars
Steelmakers forge ahead
Steelworkers earn national recognition
On the Steel Front
Steel producers join coalition
UltraLight
Steel Auto
Body Begins to Take Shape
An international
consortium of 33 major sheet steel producers - including three Ohio Steel
Commission members - has unveiled an exterior styling concept for the
UltraLight Steel Auto Body, a concept car body that emphasizes steel's
benefits. "We felt
we needed to put a face on this project - to make it real to the consumer,"
said Peter Peterson, director of production applications for U.S. Steel
Group in Pittsburgh and a leader of the ULSAB consortium. "The exterior
gives the UltraLight a look that is easily recognized, and creates the
opportunity to conduct further design studies for doors and other features." The ULSAB
is a $22 million effort to develop and design a lightweight steel automobile
structure that meets a wide range of performance targets. The project
is funded by the worldwide consortium, which includes AK Steel Corp. in
Middletown; LTV Steel Co. in Cleveland; and WCI Steel, Inc. in Warren. "Our
goal is to educate the public to the benefits of steel to ensure that
it remains the material of choice in automobiles for future generations,"
said Robert T. Buck, senior vice president and assistant to the president
at LTV Steel and that com-pany's representative on the consortium. "Although
steel has been around for a long time, the public may not realize that
the new steel is the best material to meet consumer demands for lower
weight, greater safety and better value." WCI's
representative to the consortium is Pat Tatom, vice president-commercial,
and AK Steel's consortium member is Mark G. Essig, executive vice president
of commercial sales and marketing. The first
phase of the project, completed last year, involved engineering of a "body-in-white"
structure to test the concept's weight, manufacturability, rigidity, affordability
and other performance criteria. The body-in-white is the vehicle's skeletal
structure, to which other major components - such as the drive train and
engine - are attached. The body-in-white
successfully demonstrated that a steel body could be lighter and more
rigid than that of today's typical five-passenger sedan. The next step
will involve construction of a number of demonstration UltraLight bodies-in-white,
a process that will continue into early 1998. The exterior
styling of the UltraLight Steel Auto Body provides a look for the basic
structure of the concept car and enables further design studies to be
undertaken on doors, hoods and other exterior panels.
[back
to top] OHIO
STEEL DATA REPORT:
Third Quarter 1996 Item Quarter
Ended September 30
Nine Months Ended September 30 1996
1995 % chg 1996 1995 % chg Steel
Production (tons) 4,394,600 4,233,317 3.8 13,950,147 13,071,088 6.7 Shipments
(tons) 3,615,914 3,297,992 9.6 11,161,998 10,955,388 1.9 Payroll
$345,840,513 $350,995,674 -1 $1,106,610,412 $1,125,315,015 -2 Capital
Investment Spending $97,287,693 $142,092,253 -32 $252,247,115 $540,071,429
-53 State
and Local Taxes $36,416,142 $26,546,518 37 $77,478,150 $76,733,645 0.97 Healthcare
Spending $56,903,494 $64,648,827 -12 $182,910,677 $201,988,899 -9
[back
to top] Steel
Front Sidebars AK Steel
Corp. was named one of the world's 100 best-managed companies by Industry
Week magazine, which cited the company's dramatic turnaround. AK Steel,
a member of the Ohio Steel Commission, is based in Middletown, Ohio and
employs approximately 4,100 people at its plant and offices there. Five
programs at Youngstown State University's College of Engineering and Technology
have been reaccredited by the national Accreditation Board for Engineering
and Technology. Accreditation was continued for electrical, mechanical,
industrial, chemical, and civil and environmental engineering programs. Lukens
Inc. recently completed the construction of the new wide anneal and pickle
line for stainless steel coil and plate in Massillon. The $70 million
project increases the size of Lukens' stainless plate capacity and reduces
costs. Donald
J. Caiazza, president and chief executive officer of CSC Ltd., was awarded
the March of Dimes 1996 Franklin Delano Roosevelt Service Award for Excellence,
which recognizes the work that he and CSC have done for the March of Dimes
in northeast Ohio. CSC has been a leader in the WalkAmerica event and
has engaged in other fund-raising activities.
[back
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Forge Ahead
with Capital Improvements Three
member companies of the Ohio Steel Commission recently announced plans
to invest more than $190 million in capital improvements to modernize
their Buckeye State operations. LTV Steel
Co. will spend $60 million to increase the productivity, quality and capacity
of the cold rolling facilities at its Cleveland Works. The project includes
enhancements to processing equipment and the installation of a new steel
slitting and inspection line. A coil handling system at the 84-inch hot
strip mill also will be upgraded. The investments will increase the output
capability of existing cold-rolling facilities by about 10 percent. The Timken
Company will invest $55 million in a rolling mill and processing equipment
to boost efficiency at its Harrison Steel Plant and enhance the quality
of steel bars produced there. The improvements will make the company more
competitive in the market for continuous-cast small- and intermediate-sized
bars. The new rolling mill is expected to be fully operational by mid-1998. CSC Ltd.
in Warren is undertaking a $75 to $100 million modernization that includes
a new UHP steelmaking furnace, a continuous caster, a ladle refining furnace,
vacuum tank degasser and a new two-story 100,000-square-foot building.
The new equipment, targeted for operation in 1998, will reduce manufacturing
costs and increase the mill's yield by as much as 10 percent on some products. Last
year, Ohio steel companies invested more than $900 in capital improvements.
In early 1996, Ohio producers forecast they would spend more than $600
million.
[back
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USS/KOBE
Earn National Recognition The United
Steelworkers of America Locals 1104 and 2354 and USS/KOBE Steel Company
in Lorain recently won a national grand prize from the Institute for Career
Development. They
received special recognition at the ICD annual conference in Philadelphia,
Pa., for their overall presentation of their program, which includes video
presentation, handouts, printed material, photos and samples of completed
projects made by participating steelworkers. ICD is a national program
administered by the United Steelworkers and 13 U.S. steel companies to
support the education, training and personal development of workers. The ICD
program at USS/KOBE was selected in a vote of the steelworkers' peers
representing 60 U.S. steelmaking sites. Richard
Romero, career development coordinator, attributed the program's success
to the variety of courses and the support of the Lorain area's educational
community. "We not
only have a broad range of courses to help steelworkers sharpen their
skills and take advantage of new technology, but we also were the first
ICD program to offer a wellness program," Romero said. He said
the wellness program has gained national attention, noting ICD representatives
from USS/KOBE were invited to speak recently at a healthcare conference. Some
400 of the 2,300 steelworkers employed at USS/KOBE have participated in
the program, which also includes classes in computers, time management
and other subjects. The ultimate goal is to create a learning center to
enhance the flexibility of the program and boost participation. Six other
Ohio Steel Commission companies participate in ICD: AK Steel Corp.; Armco
Inc.; LTV Steel Co.; Republic Engineered Steels, Inc.; Wheeling-Pittsburgh
Steel Corp.; and WCI Steel, Inc.
[back
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Commission Unveils
On-Line Information Resource Legislators,
journalists, students and others looking for information about the Buckeye
State's steel industry can find it on-line through the Ohio Steel Commission's
new Internet site. The Commission's
Web page at http://www.ohiosteel.org includes news and legislative issues,
photos that illustrate the Ohio steel industry, profiles of steel producers
in Ohio and other information. The site demonstrates the steel industry's
technological sophistication and its focus on communicating in new ways
with legislators, media and citizens. "Our
Internet presence helps move the image of the steel industry to where
it should be: an industry firmly focused on and committed to future competitiveness,"
said Harold V. Kelly, Commission co-chairman and executive vice president
and general counsel of Republic Engineered Steels, Inc. "This method of
communicating, in its infancy today, represents the wave of the future.
The Commission is poised to capitalize on it to better communicate with
those who want to learn more about steel and its impact on Ohio." People
can reach the Commission via e-mail and access four major resource areas
of the Web site: Ohio Steel Facts, News from the State Capitol, Commission
member information and a domain containing the latest news and updates
to the site. Ohio
Steel Facts, for example, contains the Commission's annual report, quarterly
Ohio Steel Report, position papers on public affairs issues and other
information. Remaining areas of the site feature news releases, links
to other steel Internet locations, Commission profiles and more. The graphic
design of the site illustrates the making and end uses of steel. Visitors
who register in the site's guest book will receive a thank-you gift from
the Commission. Kelly
said the Commission will continue to expand and upgrade the site to keep
pace with emerging technologies and provide an ongoing resource for government
officials and the public.
[back
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Producers Join Coalition for
Electricity Customer Choice Ohio
steel producers and other Ohio companies and organizations are responding
to a call for consensus on the legislative reforms that must be implemented
to let Ohio electricity customers choose their own suppliers. The Ohio
Coalition for Customer Choice in Electricity has been steadily gaining
membership since its formal incorporation in October, said Sam Randazzo,
general counsel of the Industrial Energy Users of Ohio and one of the
coalition's organizers. "As the
third-largest energy-consuming state in the nation, Ohio must move and
become a leader in stimulating the kind of competition that has produced
lower prices, better service and new products in other utility industries,"
said Martin Suhoza, chairman of the Ohio Steel Commission's energy subcommittee
and director of energy and production materials at LTV Steel Co., Cleveland. "The
formation of this coalition demonstrates that electricity customer choice
is a top priority for Ohio's steel producers and many others. We need
customer choice to preserve the competitiveness of this state and the
employers that have invested in Ohio for decades." The coalition
includes a diverse membership of power customers, power suppliers and
firms that want to compete in Ohio to meet the electricity needs of customers. Members
representing customers include IEU-Ohio, the Ohio Council of Retail Merchants,
the Ohio Manufacturers' Association, the Ohio Grocers Association, the
Ohio Farm Bureau, the Ohio Petroleum Council, the National Federation
of Business-Ohio, the Ohio Chemical Council and many other groups. Many
steel producers belong to one or more of these groups. In addition, the
Steel Commission, a 16-member group of steel, labor, education and governmental
officials, has been a vocal advocate of competition among electricity
companies since the group was formed in 1991. The Steel
Commission's nine member companies purchased more than $300 million in
electricity in 1995 to run their Ohio plants. A similar amount is spent
on electricity through purchases from suppliers, Suhoza pointed out. State
Representative Ron Amstutz, R-Wooster, was a primary sponsor of legislation
introduced in March that required Ohio's electric companies to provide
"choice" effective January 1, 1998. A House vote is not expected this
year, but the legislation will be reintroduced when the new session begins
after the first of the year. "It's
clear that Ohio will not be first but, from the perspective of Ohio's
steel producers and all other electricity customers, Ohio must get with
it to improve its position in the global economy," Randazzo said. Customer
choice will permit customers to select their elec-tricity supplier based
upon price and service quality, and not upon government-mandated service
relationships or "cost-plus" pricing, both of which have produced extraordinary
price differences among power suppliers within Ohio. "Residential
customers in northeast and northwest Ohio frequently pay twice as much
for electricity as residential customers in southern Ohio or those served
by municipal utilities," said Suhoza. "The current system is broke." Information
about participating in the Coalition for Customer Choice in Electricity
can be obtained by writing to Suhoza, at 1200 LTV Building, 25 W. Prospect
Ave., Cleveland, Ohio 44115 or by calling (216) 622-4835 or sending a
fax to (216) 622-1952. PUCO
Limits Rate Pact's Confidentiality Citing
the views of the Ohio Steel Commission, the state's top utility regulator
has limited the confidentiality term of a rate agreement between Toledo
Edison Co. and a major customer. The Public
Utilities Commission of Ohio ruled last month that confidential treatment
of that pact will end 18 months from its original filing, making it a
matter of public record by early 1997. In imposing
the limit, the PUCO described as "compelling" the Steel Commis-sion's
June 1996 resolution opposing such confidential treatment. The PUCO also
considered that Toledo Edison and its customer, North Star-BHP Steel Co.
in Delta, may have relied on confidentiality because the PUCO had approved
it in an earlier pact between Cleveland Electric Illuminating Co. and
American Steel & Wire Co. in Cleveland. "Confidentiality
precludes other energy users from knowing what terms and pricing the monopoly
utility companies are offering in the marketplace," stated Jay Parr, chairman
of the Steel Commission's energy/environment committee and general manager
of Armco Inc.'s Coshocton Operations. "Thus, it creates an uneven playing
field." Meanwhile,
the PUCO recently allowed confidentiality to expire on the CEI-AS&W agreement
after neither party moved for an extension.
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