RTI considers moving its executives

Being closer to a major
airport would help
executives, an official said.

By DON SHILLING

VINDICATOR BUSINESS EDITOR

NILES — RTI International Metals is considering moving its top executives out of the area.

A move closer to a major airport would make it easier for them to travel and make it easier for customers to visit, said Dawne Hickton, RTI vice chairwoman and chief executive.

She talked briefly about the potential move in a conference call Tuesday with industry analysts. An analyst raised the issue by asking if the titanium producer was considering moving its corporate headquarters because it now has plants and customers outside the U.S.

Hickton said the relocation of key executive offices was under consideration but didn’t say how many people might be involved. She did not say how far the company was in its decision-making process.

Richard Leone, a company spokesman, said Tuesday he couldn’t comment on the possible move.

Current location

Hickton noted that the company has been based in Weathersfield Township for 50 years, but it now has 1,400 employees at 18 locations in the U.S., Canada, Europe and Asia. The plants are involved with the production, fabrication and distribution of titanium.

RTI is the parent company of RMI Titanium Co., which has a mill in Weathersfield.

RTI has a corporate staff of about 100, while RMI has about 400 hourly and salaried employees.

Delphi Packard Electric made a similar move last year: A few of its top executives and support staff moved from Warren to Streetsboro to be closer to Cleveland Hopkins International Airport. The executives are involved in Packard’s global operations. Packard is a division of Michigan-based Delphi Corp.

Stoneridge

Another large company that was founded in the Mahoning Valley has chosen to keep its headquarters here while building a global manufacturing base.

Stoneridge, which makes electronic and electrical parts for vehicles, has a corporate office in Howland but has nearly all of its 6,000 employees at other locations in this country and abroad. It was founded in Warren in 1965.

The relocation of corporate offices at RTI arose during a conference call that was scheduled to explain a company announcement that was made Monday.

The company had said it was building a $300 million plant in Mississippi to build titanium sponge, a key ingredient in titanium production, and that it had signed a long-term contract with Airbus that would provide more than $1.1 billion in revenues. Airbus is a European-based maker of airplanes.

Industry analysts asked RTI officials to explain the cost advantage of building a sponge plant because the supply of the material is expected to increase in a few years.

Hickton said having its own plant would allow RTI to control its costs and better manage its own business. RTI would use all of the sponge produced at the plant but still have to buy about half of what it needs on the market.

Analysts asked RTI officials to compare the cost of acquiring sponge to the cost of producing it. Michael Wellham, president and chief operating officer, declined to provide specific information but added that production costs are expected to be “very favorable” to the cost of buying it.

shilling@vindy.com