Steel Mills
Kentucky to Extend Tax Incentives for AK Steel Ashland Works
Written by Sandy Williams
March 31, 2016
AK Steel will get help to restart the Ashland Works furnace from Kentucky legislators. The state Senate passed a house bill on Tuesday that would extend economic incentives from a 2014 measure to help AK Steel refurbish and restart the idled blast furnace at Ashland. The incentives were due to expire in July.
AK Steel planned to use the 2014 tax incentives to repair and reline the furnace. Upgrades were stopped when the furnace was idled in December 2015 in response to severe cuts in steel pricing and demand due to high levels of dumped and subsidized foreign steel into the U.S. market. The company laid off 500 of the 900 employees and created a ripple effect in the local coal industry, causing layoffs of miners in Eastern Kentucky that supply the metallurgical coal for Ashland Works.
Rep. Jill York (R-Grayson), who helped sponsor the bill, estimates that the furnace reline will cost around $50 million. House Bill 535 extends the 2014 incentives until 2019 and will be applicable to the cost of bringing the furnace back online, coverage that wasn’t included in the original measure.
“We appreciate the support of the Kentucky Legislature and Governor during these challenging times,” said AK Steel in an email to SMU. “Our blast furnace at Ashland Works has been temporarily idled since late December due to challenging domestic market conditions, including the flood of steel imports which is depressing market conditions and impacting operations.”
No date has been set for repairs and restart of the blast furnace said AK Steel spokeswoman Lisa Jester.
“We continue to evaluate the domestic and global market conditions and the market conditions have not sufficiently improved to allow us to either restart the furnace or make plans for a reline of the furnace at this time,” said Jester.
Sandy Williams
Read more from Sandy WilliamsLatest in Steel Mills
Ternium pushes forward with growth projects despite slump in earnings and Mexican market
Ternium S.A. Fourth quarter ended Dec.31 2024 2023 Change Net sales $3,876 $4,931 -21.4% Net income (loss) $333 $554 -39.9% Per diluted share $1.43 $2.11 -32.2% Full year ended Dec.31 Net sales $17,649 $17,610 0.2% Net income (loss) $174 $986 -82.4% Per diluted share $(0.27) $3.44 -108% (in millions of dollars except per share) While […]
Kestenbaum, Ancora state their case in proxy fight for U.S. Steel
Ancora Holdings is moving forward with its proxy fight to oust U.S. Steel’s leadership and install a new board of directors and Alan Kestenbaum as CEO.
BlueScope shelves midstream facility but still upbeat on US
BlueScope Steel is pulling back on its expansion plans in the US for now but remains optimistic about the North American market.
Japanese PM cites ‘unjust political interference’ in Nippon/USS deal: Report
Japan’s Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said on Monday that former President Joe Biden’s decision to block Nippon Steel’s buy of U.S. Steel was “unjust political interference,” according to a report in Reuters. This comes after another Reuters report on Friday saying that President Trump would not object to Nippon taking a minority stake in the […]
Trump says Nippon will ‘invest heavily’ in USS rather than buy it
Nippon Steel has agreed to “invest heavily in U.S. Steel as opposed to own it,” President Donald Trump said on Friday during a press conference with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba. U.S. Steel is “a very important company” and was once “the greatest company in the world”. Of potential foreign ownership of the Pittsburgh-based steelmaker, Trump said, “the concept, psychologically, not good."