Media: Bids placed on steel facility

Potential buyers for Warren’s RG Steel not ID’d by publications

Staff report

WARREN

Two Baltimore publications are reporting that “one or more bids” have been placed on the RG Steel facility in Warren.

The Baltimore Brew, an online publication, and the Baltimore Sun are reporting that the bids would restore the Warren and Wheeling, W.Va., plants to full or partial operation.

Potential buyers are not identified for the Warren or Wheeling facilities.

Union leaders had a meeting Monday morning and no information was provided about any potential buyers, said Darryl Parker, president of United Steelworkers 1375, which represents about 1,000 laid-off workers at the Warren facility.

RG Steel also employed 135 nonunion workers at the site.

Parker did not know about the validity of the two media reports.

There also is no information about any possible bidder posted in federal court documents relating to the bankruptcy case.

RG Steel filed for bankruptcy May 25. The company began to lay off employees in June.

The company had to choose by Monday a stalking-horse agreement. The agreement represents an opening bid in the sale and likely sets a baseline for the upcoming auction. The agreement would have to be made between RG Steel and the groups that have made offers during the bank- ruptcy process.

The auction for the RG Steel properties will occur no later than Aug. 24.

RG Steel officials in early June referred to the impending shutdown at the Warren facility as being long-term but not permanent.

The Warren plant made high-strength, high- carbon steel used primarily in the automotive and construction industries, as well as items such as shovels, wheelbarrows and guardrails.

In an emailed statement in June —the last statement the company made regarding the Warren plant — Bette Kovach, RG spokeswoman, said the company no longer was taking future orders from customers, and the various divisions of the Warren mill will “wind down as we complete processing current customer orders.”

Since bankruptcy was announced there has been training funded by the U.S. Department of Labor to help the affected workers find new careers. A National Emergency Grant for $41,347 was awarded to the Ohio Department of Jobs and Family Services to continue to provide reemployment services to workers affected by layoffs at six RG Steel/Severstal facilities including four in Ohio and two in West Virginia, as well as at Kinder Morgan, a Severstal supplier, located in Pennsylvania.

RG Steel representatives were not available to comment about the bankruptcy.