CHIPS

By Staff -- Purchasing, 4/5/2001

Stainless steel strip processor and distributor Stainless Sales Corp. , Chicago, has earned ISO 9002/QS 9000 certification.

Metals USA , the Houston-based metals processing and distribution giant, is implementing the final phase of a national branding program. As a result, the company's service centers across the U.S. will operate under the single brand name, its product group and the city where it operates. For example, Interstate Metals now is Metals USA Plates and Shapes-Philadelphia.

Tungsten Products of Madison, Ala., (formerly Teledyne Tungsten ) has discontinued selling commodity tungsten and molybdenum products and is concentrating on tungsten heavy alloy products. The Allegheny Technologies unit is selling Densalloy-brand alloys used in applications ranging from therapeutic medical radiation shielding to aircraft counterbalancing.

Nucor Corp. , the fourth-biggest U.S. steelmaker, is in talks to acquire steel mills in New York and Illinois owned by Japan's Sumitomo Corp. Nucor will decide by the end of March whether to buy Auburn Steel , which has mills in Lemont, Ill., and Auburn, N.Y. "We've been interested for a while in having a facility in the Northeast,'' says Dan DiMicco, president. Nucor is the biggest U.S. maker of steel bars. The Auburn Steel mills combined can make more than 700,000 tons of steel annually, and the New York plant could supply a Nucor joist-making plant about 80 miles away.

Alcoa Inc. , the world's largest producer of aluminum, has set a new $1 billion cost-reduction target, which it aims to achieve over the next three years by improving operating productivity-including the first commercial potlines using new inert-anode technology-and by eliminating supply chain and manufacturing waste. The Pittsburgh-based company achieved $1.1 billion of cost cutting in a previous program, which ended in December. Alain Belda, chairman, says the initiative isn't aimed at cutting jobs.

Gibraltar Steel expects a difficult operating environment in the first quarter, says Brian Lipke, chairman of the Buffalo, N.Y.-based supplier of cold-rolled strip, heavy-duty strapping, and galvanized and painted sheet steel. "The economic slowdown, especially in the automotive and building products areas, which are our two largest markets, has lowered sales since the start of the fourth quarter of 2000," says the chief executive officer.

Flat-rolled steel processor Steel Technologies is idling the Decatur, Ala., pickle line of Mi-Tech Steel , its joint venture with Mitsui Steel Development Co.

Republic Technologies International of Fairlaw, Ohio, plans to close its cold-finished steel bar plant in Willimantic, Conn., in mid-April because of overcrowded cold-finished steel bar supply. Republic has seven other cold-finishing operations,.

Wabash Alloys is closing its secondary aluminum smelter at Checotah, Okla., as part of a cost-reduction effort. Running well below its capacity of seven million pounds per month, the facility was among the oldest in the Wabash Alloys chain of 14 plants throughout North America. Wabash Alloys also has cut production drastically at its plant in Guelph, Ontario. Rated at 12 million pounds per month, the plant is operating at just 2.5 million pounds per month. Poor market conditions and increased production costs, especially for natural gas, have spurred a belt-tightening throughout the secondary smelter industry. For example: Delta Group Inc., Muskego, Wis., was closed in January.

The cold-rolling steel-processing operation Heartland Steel Inc. , Terre Haute, Ind., has sought Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The firm was plagued with processing problems and was unable to obtain additional backing from major investors. Harold Coker, Jr., Heartland's president, says software problems with the firm's automation system were to blame.

Stainless steel and high-temperature alloys metals service center Ferguson Metals of Hamilton, Ohio, has opened a Chicago-area sales office in Elgin, Ill.