1,200 remain laid off as Severstal issues notice

STAFF REPORT

WARREN — Severstal Warren issued a federal plant closing notice Thursday and said about 1,200 workers will remain on layoff indefinitely.

Bette Kovach, a company spokeswoman, said the notice was filed to comply with federal law and there is no change in the status of the mill, which used to be known as WCI Steel.

“We plan to restart operations when orders return. We can’t predict when that will happen,” she said.

The mill has not produced steel since October and shut down other production lines earlier this year. Severstal originally said it planned to restart steelmaking by June, but has since said it can’t identify a timetable.

Tony Montana, a spokesman for the United Steelworkers of America, said the union still believes Severstal intends to reopen the mill when market conditions improve.

The mill’s steelmaking operations originally went down for two weeks of maintenance in October. The shutdown was extended, however, when Severstal experienced a dramatic drop in orders.

The Russian-based steelmaker also has idled other mills in North America.

The federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, or WARN, requires companies to notify workers and communities in advance of mass layoffs. Kovach said Severstal filed the notice locally because the large layoff in Warren has gone from a short-term situation to a long-term one.