Sen. Brown tours steel plant

By Brandon klein

bklein@vindy.com

Warren

Wearing a yellow helmet, green safety jacket and protective eyewear, U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, visited Warren Steel Holdings LLC to tour the steel plant and meet with workers.

“This is another example of the [Mahoning] Valley coming back,” Brown said.

During Monday’s tour, Brown inquired about the process at the plant and how trade practices by South Korea and China were affecting the steel market.

“The [South] Koreans were clearly cheating,” he said, adding that more needs to be done with enforcing trade policies.

Operations at the plant, at 4000 Mahoning Ave., were suspended because of high energy costs. Over the summer, a deal was finalized between the company and the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio to lower costs. The plant reopened Aug. 7.

The company’s energy cost “80 percent more than our competitors,” said Michael Salamon, president of Optima Specialty Steel. They also were the only company with that high rate, he added.

“We didn’t ask for anything else. ... We just wanted to be treated fairly like everyone else,” Salamon said.

Since operations have been shut down, the company lost 8 percent of its workers, said Karl Csensich, acting controller at the plant. The company is looking to hire and rehire workers to about 200 with operations back on.

“We’re trying to fill in all the jobs now,” said John Scheel, general manager of the plant. “We have a lot of people learning the value of production.”