By BOB OLIVER
Times-Herald Newspapers
DEARBORN – The sale of the Russian-based steel manufacturer Severstal’s Dearborn plant to Ohio-based AK Steel Corp. for $700 million has been finalized.
In a press release announcing the finalized deal, Severstal CEO Alexey Mordashov said the sale “unlocks substantial value to Severstal’s shareholders” and thanked employees for their work at the plants in Dearborn and Columbus, Miss.
“I would like to express gratitude to the whole team and to every employee of Severstal North America for achieving a lot together,” Severstal CEO Alexey Mordashov said. “I wish you the best of luck in all your future endeavors.”
Severstal also sold its other U.S. facility in Columbus, Miss. for $1.63 billion to Steel Dynamics.
AK Steel President and CEO James L. Wainscott said the company intends to “utilize all of Dearborn’s production units and the company has no plans to cease operations at any of its current steelmaking or steel finishing facilities.”
“At AK Steel, the future is now, and the future is bright, as our acquisition of Dearborn Works makes us a larger, stronger and more flexible company,” Wainscott said.
The acquisition is expected to raise the company’s annual shipments of finished steel to about 7.5 million tons
“We expect the transaction to be immediately accretive to our earnings and create significant long-term value for AK Steel, our employees, customers and shareholders,” Wainscott said.
About 1,800 people are employed at the plant, at 4001 Miller Road, on part of the former Rogue Steel complex.
The announcement of the sale of the Dearborn plant in July came a few months after Severstal was awarded a revised permit from the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality to continue to emit its current level of pollutants into the air.
The new permit allowed the company to double its carbon monoxide emissions, allowed for PM10, or fine-particle dust, emissions to rise between two and five times and lead emissions to increase hundreds of times, though both MDEQ and Severstal officials indicated that the permit did not actually allow an increase in pollution, but more accurately reflected what the plant had been emitting since 2006 when the initial permit was issued.
The new permit brought controversy with it though, as many residents filed complaints with the MDEQ centered on health issues associated with fallout, smoke and other emissions from the plant.
When issuing the revised permit, MDEQ Air Quality Division Chief Vince Hellwig said Severstal has been issued 38 notices of violation for pollution from the MDEQ since 2010, but the new permit would enhance the emission and operational monitoring requirements and expand testing requirements for the plant moving forward.
(Bob Oliver can be reached at [email protected].)