For Immediate Release

Public Relations Division
Public Affairs Department
1170 Eighth Avenue
Bethlehem, PA 18016-7699
(610) 694-3711 - Phone
(610) 694-1509 - Fax

BETHLEHEM, Pa., September 23, 1997 -- Bethlehem Steel Corporation announced today that it has completed the sale of its BethForge and CENTEC businesses to two companies that are part of the West Homestead Engineering and Machinery Company (WHEMCO) group of companies.

The sale was finalized upon the completion of a labor agreement between the United Steelworkers of America and WHEMCO.

Lehigh Forge Corporation has purchased BethForge, and CR Acquisition has purchased CENTEC. Both companies will take immediate ownership of the former Bethlehem Steel businesses.

Said Curtis H. Barnette, chairman and chief executive officer, Bethlehem Steel:

"The sale of these two businesses brings us much closer to completing the comprehensive restructuring plan we announced last October, which will include the expected sale of BethShip Sparrows Point Yard to Veritas Capital Inc. later this month.

"We are very pleased that these businesses will continue under WHEMCO, which has many years of experience in serving industrial companies including steelmakers. Bethlehem Steel intends to be both a supplier of high-quality ingots to Lehigh Forge and a customer for rolls from both of these businesses. The sale of these two ongoing businesses helps preserve employment for many of Bethlehem Steel's former employees. We appreciate the efforts of Governor Ridge and his Action Team for their support in helping to make this transaction possible."

Said William G. Cook Jr., president and chief executive officer, WHEMCO:

"We look forward to quickly returning to the marketplace and entering roll orders for Bethlehem Steel and other customers for 1998. We expect to complete orders accepted under Bethlehem Steel ownership and will aggressively enter new orders immediately. Our production facilities will be temporarily idled for about two weeks until a final accounting of all inventories is completed. Shipments will not be interrupted by this change of ownership."

CENTEC, founded in 1990, has become a leading supplier of high-quality, centrifugally cast iron rolls to the metalworking industry in North America. CR Acquisition will continue CENTEC's technical relationship with Forcast International of France. CENTEC employs 125 people.

Bethlehem Steel's production of forged products began in the 1880s when the corporation supplied armor steel plate for naval vessels that previously had been made of wood. Since then, Bethlehem Steel, through its BethForge subsidiary, has been producing a wide range of forged products at forging and machining facilities in Bethlehem. Since early 1996, BethForge has been using steel ingots produced at Bethlehem Steel's Pennsylvania Steel Technologies (PST) business unit in Steelton, Pa. BethForge employs 450 people.

WHEMCO maintains iron and steel foundries employing about 500 people who produce a wide range of components for industrial equipment at operations in Ohio, West Virginia and western Pennsylvania. WHEMCO is a division of the Park Corporation, a Cleveland-based company that owns and operates numerous manufacturing facilities that serve the automotive, steel, petrochemical, heat treating and other heavy industries.