Restarting furnace at Severstal Warren stalled by recession

WARREN — The restarting of steel-making operations at Severstal Warren is being delayed by the lingering recession.

The blast furnace will not be restarted by June 1 as company officials had hoped and more than 800 hourly workers will remain laid off.

Greg Echols, mill general manager, told employees in a recorded message Friday that the company doesn’t have enough orders to begin making steel again in Warren. The blast furnace produces molten iron which starts the process of making steel.

Echols could not be reached for comment, but Mel Baggett, Severstal’s vice president of human resources, said it’s impossible to predict when enough orders will flow in to restart the mill.

“We are matching the capacity of the plant with our order book,” he said.

For more information, see Tuesday’s Vindicator or www.vindy.com.