Steel Mills
Final Notices Issued for AK Ashland Closure
Written by Sandy Williams
September 5, 2019
The remaining days for AK Steel Ashland Works are numbered. Employees received final notices on Tuesday from AK Steel regarding the permanent shutdown of the Ashland plant scheduled for Dec. 31.
The letter from the company sent to about 260 employees states:
“As you know on Jan. 28, 2019, AK Steel announced its plans to permanently shut down all operations at the Ashland Works by the end of 2019. This plant closing will affect all 260 employees at the Ashland Works, which is located at 170 Armco Drive, Ashland.
“Based on the best information available to AK Steel, we expect the closure of the Ashland works to be completed in two phases over the next few months,” the letter states. “Position eliminations in Phase 1 will occur on Nov. 4, 2019, or during the two-week period thereafter. Position eliminations in Phase 2 will occur on Dec. 17, 2019, or during the two-week period thereafter. We expect that 176 employees will be separated during Phase 1 and the remaining 84 employees will be separated during Phase 2.”
Ashland Works was owned by Armco before its purchase by AK Steel. The steelworks, completed in 1923, featured the first continuous rolling line in the U.S. to produce steel sheet.
The Ashland blast furnace was relined in 2014, but was idled just a year later in December 2015. At the time, AK Steel cited challenging domestic market conditions due to an onslaught of unfairly traded steel imports. AK Steel maintained operation of a single hot-dip galvanizing line at the Ashland facility.
“This is disheartening,” Union President Kendall Kilgore told The Daily Independent on Monday. “It was an icon to this community. It provided many families with a good life. It’s going to be a great loss to Ashland.”
Sandy Williams
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