Pittsburgh Post Gazette reported that a federal bankruptcy court judge in Delaware is expected to decide whether to approve the sale of a shuttered Warren steel mill to a partnership led by Beaver County entrepreneur Mr Charles Betters.

Documents filed in US Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington identified CJ Betters Enterprises as the successful bidder with a cash offer of USD 16 million. Mr Betters said his partners in the venture are the DiGeronimo Companies of Cleveland and Mr Stephen Muck, president of Saxonburg based Brayman Construction.

RG Steel idled the Warren mill and others in West Virginia, Ohio and Maryland in May when it filed for bankruptcy. The bankruptcy came 14 months after RG Steel, based in Sparrows Point, became the fourth largest US steel producer by purchasing the Warren plant, former Wheeling Pittsburgh Steel plants, and Bethlehem Steel's former Sparrows Point mill in Baltimore from Russian steel producer OAO Severstal.

Mr Betters said his group hopes to restart operations at the mill, but will have to evaluate whether that is feasible. The group lacks steel making experience and will bring in advisers to make that determination.

In the past, Mr Betters teamed with DiGeronimo to demolish the former LTV tin mill in Aliquippa as well as First Energy power plants in Lorain and Springfield. The partnership also cleaned up environmental problems at the power plants.

Brayman's projects include repairing the Hot Metal Bridge over the Monongahela River and building a new wall for a lock on the Monongahela River at Charleroi for the US Army Corps of Engineers.

Mr Betters said he has not had talks with the United Steelworkers union, which represents workers at the mill. Nor have the investors met with potential customers for the mill. Those discussions will begin if US Bankruptcy Court Judge Mr Kevin J Carey approves the sale.

One longtime steel industry analyst said the Warren plant has the best prospects of any of the RG mills being auctioned. But analyst Mr Charles Bradford estimated that it would require millions of dollars of repairs before restarting the mill. He said Warren makes high carbon steel, a hard metal used in the blades of farming equipment, knives and other products.

Mr Bradford said that "Warren in my mind was the operation that had the best chance for success."

Source - Pittsburgh Post Gazette

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