By Conti
Ashland, KY – A-K Steel President James Wainscott says the company's two coke batteries in Ashland will be shut down during the first half of this year. Wainscott made the announcement during the firm's quarterly conference call.
He says AK is closing the Kentucky Coke plant because it is cheaper to purchase the material elsewhere than it is to make it.
"This was a difficult, but necessary choice to enhance the long-term viability of the main steel plant, also known as the west works, at Ashland," Wainscott said. "Coke is the fuel for our blast furnaces and for us to produce slabs at Ashland, at a competitive cost level, we determined, given the ages of the coke batteries and impending increases in environmental constraints, that it was much cheaper to buy rather than make coke at Ashland."
Wainscott says AK will do everything it can to move the affected 263 workers at the Ashland coke plant to other jobs within the company. AK reported Tuesday a net loss for the fourth quarter last year of $98.3 million. The steelmaker had net income of nearly $40 million for the final quarter of 2009.