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WEIRTON, WV. -- Weirton Steel Corp. today announced its No. 4 blast furnace, which was idled nine months ago due to the steel import surge, will be restarted in early December. Craig T. Costello, Weirton Steel chief operating officer, said the decision to restart the furnace was based on improved business conditions. Central to the improvement was an upswing in market conditions created by legal action taken against countries violating U.S. trade laws. Costello said the number of employees to be recalled has yet to be determined. Currently, 143 employees are on layoff due to the import problem. In late December of last year, nearly 1,000 were laid off because of the imports. "There will be a tremendous amount of work to do between now and December to bring back the furnace. Obviously, we will recall the amount of people necessary to operate the furnace, but it’s too early to speculate on the exact number until we work through the details," Costello said. "Restarting the furnace is good news for the company, our employees and our industry. The success behind our trade cases, which ultimately forced various countries to stop or severely curtail exporting certain types of illegally priced steel to the U.S., has improved the domestic marketplace. Our ability to again operate the furnace is evidence our participation in trade cases has been a sound investment." Costello said a tentative decision to restart the furnace was made several weeks ago with the final determination being rendered late last week. The No. 4 furnace, which produces 3,000 tons of molten iron per day, is one of two ironmaking furnaces the company operates. The other furnace, No. 1, produces 4,300 tons per day. The iron is a key material used in the production of raw steel. Because the imports consumed large portions of the domestic market in 1998 and for most of 1999, Weirton Steel’s customer orders decreased. With orders depressed, a two-furnace operation was not cost effective, resulting in the furnace being shut down on Dec. 15, 1998. "The furnace was idled because market conditions were suffering. Now that they are improving, we can restart the furnace. However, this does not mean the import crisis is over. While we have been successful through legal action of reducing imports for certain product lines, some countries have increased other product types to offset their losses. The imports continue to keep our selling prices below normal," said Costello. Weirton Steel was among several complainants to file legal action last year with the U.S. government against Russia, Brazil and Japan for selling hot-rolled steel in American markets at illegal prices. The government ruled in favor of the complaints and levied hefty tariffs on the hot rolled from those countries. Japan’s hot-rolled shipments have dramatically decreased, while shipments from Russia and Brazil have stopped for a year in lieu of paying the tariffs under a special agreement with the U.S. government. Weirton Steel also is a party to a trade case filed in June against 12 countries. The countries are accused of illegally pricing their cold-rolled steel they sold in the U.S. in 1998. The case currently is under investigation by the U.S. Commerce Department. Weirton Steel is considering filing additional trade cases involving steel products other than hot and cold rolled.
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