Allegheny Ludlum, an Allegheny Technologies Incorporated company, will indefinitely idle the melt and associated service operations located at its facility in Houston, Pennsylvania. The idling is expected to be completed by 31 December 2001, and will impact approximately 220 hourly and
salaried employees. The company indicated that it plans to continue operating the Steckel mill located at the Houston facility.
“We regret the need to indefinitely idle the Houston melt shop operations,” said Douglas A. Kittenbrink, Allegheny Technologies’ executive vice president and chief operating officer. “Very weak economic conditions have led to a significant reduction in demand for commodity stainless steel. This, combined with continued pressure from unfairly traded foreign imports, requires us to accelerate our efforts to reduce operating costs to remain competitive. We have no present plans to restart these operations.”
