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Bethlehem Steel Corporation
For Immediate Release
SPARROWS POINT, Md., May 17, 2000 -- Bethlehem Steel's Sparrows Point Division and VOEST-ALPINE Services and Technologies (VAST) have announced the formation of a 50-50 joint venture company to provide machining services in the region.
The joint venture will manage one of the largest machine shops on the East Coast with some 100 machine tools and 15 overhead cranes, one of which has a lifting capacity of 75 tons. The 156,000-square-foot No. 2 machine shop has historically performed heavy mechanical repair work for the steel plant and Bethlehem's former ship yards. The shop is ISO 9002 compliant.
Called Chesapeake Heavy Machine Services, L.L.C., the joint venture company began operating this month and will offer its heavy mechanical services to industrial customers along the East Coast. The new company also intends to reduce the cost of mechanical maintenance through technical evaluations and engineered changes in the repair system.
The machine shop will be staffed by Sparrows Point employees. Bethlehem will contribute the existing machinery to the joint venture, while VAST will contribute cash for investments to modernize it.
"Our long-standing relationship with VAST has provided cost reductions in our continuous steel slab caster maintenance and repairs," said Carl W. Johnson, Sparrows Point Division president.
"We have been making many improvements to increase our division's competitiveness and increase value for Bethlehem's stockholders. This joint venture is another step in that direction."
"We are very pleased to be selected by Bethlehem as its partner in this new endeavor," said Gerhard Emsenhuber, VAST's chairman.
VAST, a member of the listed VOEST-ALPINE group of companies, provides total mill maintenance services to steel producers in the United States and Canada. Bethlehem Steel is the second largest integrated steel company in the United States. The Sparrows Point Division manufactures semi-finished steel, and hot-rolled, cold-rolled and coated sheet steel, and tin mill products.
