Middletown Works Back to Full Production

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From AKS Earnings Call Transcript

"...let me comment on the status of our Middletown Works blast furnace. Following an unplanned outage that began back on June 22, we performed the necessary repairs and got the blast furnace back online approximately 3 weeks later. The furnace has run reasonably well since then but not as well as we initially thought, and it did not return to its full capacity during the third quarter. Accordingly, in early October, we took a 3-day outage to address the productivity shortfall.
As we've stated in our third quarter earnings guidance and in our third quarter earnings release that was sent out earlier today, the lower level of slab production during the third quarter had 3 consequences: first, that increased our cost per ton; second, it lowered our shipments; and third, we were unable to enjoy a portion of our recently announced spot market price increases for carbon steel. Based on our recent performance, however, we believe that we are now back to full production capacity at the Middletown furnace. And accordingly, we expect to enjoy the associated higher production, higher shipments, lower unit costs and higher selling prices going forward. I might add that major maintenance outages in the fourth quarter of 2013 will be much less in scope and in cost than those that took place in the third quarter."     -James L. Wainscott - Chairman, Chief Executive Officer, President and Member of Proxy Committee

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John Beagle Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Visit Members Homepage Add to Buddy List MUSA Official Joined: Apr 23 2007 Location: Middletown Status: Offline Points: 1855	Post Options Post Reply Quote John Beagle Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Topic: Middletown Works Back to Full Production Posted: Oct 22 2013 at 3:21pm
	From AKS Earnings Call Transcript "...let me comment on the status of our Middletown Works blast furnace. Following an unplanned outage that began back on June 22, we performed the necessary repairs and got the blast furnace back online approximately 3 weeks later. The furnace has run reasonably well since then but not as well as we initially thought, and it did not return to its full capacity during the third quarter. Accordingly, in early October, we took a 3-day outage to address the productivity shortfall. As we've stated in our third quarter earnings guidance and in our third quarter earnings release that was sent out earlier today, the lower level of slab production during the third quarter had 3 consequences: first, that increased our cost per ton; second, it lowered our shipments; and third, we were unable to enjoy a portion of our recently announced spot market price increases for carbon steel. Based on our recent performance, however, we believe that we are now back to full production capacity at the Middletown furnace. And accordingly, we expect to enjoy the associated higher production, higher shipments, lower unit costs and higher selling prices going forward. I might add that major maintenance outages in the fourth quarter of 2013 will be much less in scope and in cost than those that took place in the third quarter." -James L. Wainscott - Chairman, Chief Executive Officer, President and Member of Proxy Committee
	John Beagle Middletown USA News of, for and by the people of Middletown, Ohio.