Lawmakers to meet with Severstal

COLUMBUS - State Reps. John Domenick, D-Smithfield, and Tom Letson, D-Warren, today announced they have secured a meeting with executives of Severstal North America.

Three company executives - Doug Schrader, vice president/general manager of government relations; Wilbur Winland, Severstal Wheeling vice president/general manager; and Greg Echols, vice president/general manager of Severstal Warren - will meet with Domenick and Letson at 2 p.m. Thursday in Columbus.

Domenick and Letson, along with state Sen. Jason Wilson, D-Columbiana, recently sent a letter to Severstal requesting the company return its steel plants to active production or sell them to a company that will utilize them.

"We are extremely pleased that Severstal has agreed to this meeting," said Domenick and Letson. "We need to get the dialogue started in order to put Ohioans back to work. We have said several times that we are eager to sit down with Severstal and work out the issues that are keeping skilled Ohioans out of work. This is a hopeful sign."

Domenick and Letson noted that while Severstal has idled a number of plants, there are other companies who have expressed interest in utilizing them.

In their recent letter to company executives, the lawmakers wrote, "Our constituents feel the pain of being laid off from your plants, and all concerned would be best served by having these plants operating again and the workers again gainfully employed."

Severstal North America recently confirmed it will be restarting its shuttered cold mill in Yorkville on Dec. 13, though the company is not saying how many workers are returning or for how long.

The company said sheet steel from Severstal's Sparrows Point, Md., mill will be used to supply the Yorkville plant, which will send its cold-rolled products to customers and to the Martins Ferry Severstal plant for coating.

That mill was idled in June as Severstal shuttered most of its local operations, the former Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel plants, other than the Follansbee coke plant, which has continued to run at low levels of capacity.

The hot end of the plant in Mingo Junction, where iron and steel was produced, cast and rolled into sheets to supply Yorkville, remains idle.