Ohio Board OKs $12 Million Loan For Wheeling-Pitt

Ohio Senate Minority Leader Gregory DiDonato announced that the Ohio Controlling Board approved a state loan for $12 million for Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel Corp.'s Mingo Junction, Ohio, facility. The loan is for five years and has a 3 1/2 percent interest rate.

The loan is part of a package that includes a $15 million loan from the state of West Virginia and a $250 million Byrd Bill loan through the Emergency Steel Loan Guarantee Board.

West Virginia's loan has been approved, while funding at the federal level is still being considered. A spokeswoman for Ohio's Controlling Board says that the loan is contingent on the steel company receving a Federal Steel Loan Guarantee loan.

If the federal funding is approved, the loan monies will be part of an overhaul of Wheeling-Pitt's operation. The overhaul consists of the installation of a new electric arc furnace to be used in the manufacturing of steel products. This furnace will provide for the permanent idling of one of two existing blast furnaces and three small coke batteries.

The blast furnace to be idled is located in Steubenville, and the coke batteries are in Follansbee.

With a new electric arc furnace, half of Wheeling-Pitt's liquid steel would be produced from recycled scrap and alternative iron sources. The firm would upgrade the 80-inch Hot Strip Mill at the Mingo Junction plant to achieve quality and productivity gains via installation of automatic finishing roll changers. These devices will reduce mill down time for making roll changes. The 80-inch Hot Strip Mill reduces heated steel slabs to a coiled steel strip.

"These monies are extremely important to Wheeling-Pitt in their continuing production of steel, and for the many jobs the company provides in the Ohio Valley area,'' DiDonato said. "The steel industry has been a backbone of the American economy and the working class and we should continue to promote domestic production of steel and the many jobs the steel industry creates in the United States.''

If the total financing package is approved, 2,000 jobs would be retained in the Ohio Valley, DiDonato stated. Wheeling (W.V.) Intelligencer