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WEIRTON, W.VA. – U.S. Rep. Ted Strickland, D-Ohio, today visited Weirton Steel Corp. to receive an update on the company’s application before the Emergency Steel Loan Guarantee (ESLG) Program Board. Strickland met at Weirton Steel’s headquarters with company Chief Executive Officer D. Leonard Wise, President and Chief Financial Officer Mark E. Kaplan and Mark Glyptis, Independent Steelworkers Union president. "Congressman Strickland informed us he continues to press the loan board to support our application and is working hard to extend the program. He has been involved with our application since June 30, the day it was filed. Today’s talks were among many others we have conducted with him informed of the application process. He is truly an ally of Weirton Steel and its employees," Wise said. If the loan board grants the company’s request to participate in the program, the federal government will guarantee 85 to 95 percent of a $175 million loan the steelmaker would receive from Fleet Capital Corp., Chicago. The loan will not be made unless the loan board approves the application. "The loan board’s approval and the $175 million loan are essential for the company to emerge from bankruptcy. There is so much work to do, but so little time. Thankfully, we have good leaders such as Ted Strickland helping us through these trying times. He understands our industry and our company and is focused on his mission in Washington to help us," Glyptis noted. The company and the union also have been urging the federal government to extend the ESLG Program which is set to terminate on Dec. 31. The parties contend the extension is needed should the company need additional time beyond Dec. 31 to finalize any unresolved matters of its bankruptcy emergence plan. Last month, U.S. Rep. Alan Mollohan, D-W.Va., introduced an amendment to a budget bill calling for a two-year program extension. U.S. Sen. Robert Byrd, W.Va., attached a similar amendment to the Senate version of the bill. The $175 million loan would be used to offset the cost for Weirton Steel emerge bankruptcy, fund mill equipment upgrades and to partially fund a new polymer tin coating operation. Weirton Steel employs 3,484 of which the ISU represents 3,000 of those employees. The company is the nation’s fifth largest integrated steelmaker and second largest producer of tin mill products.
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