Bethlehem Structural Products Corporation

Completing the Transition, Moving Toward the Future
by Timothy Lewis
President

Although steelmaking ended in late 1995, BSPC
looks forward to serving its structural and coke customers with the same commitment that has characterized its operations since 1904.

There were two significant changes in 1995 at Bethlehem Structural Products Corporation that will improve the long-term outlook for the ongoing businesses.

The first major change was the transition from steelmaking that was completed on November 18. It was a day filled with sadness and pride - sadness for the events that were taking place but pride in the role the plant played in building America. People worked through the last cast of iron and last heat of steel with pride and dignity. We successfully closed the hot end of our operation safely and with environmental integrity.

Because of our transition from steelmaking, heavy beam production and foundry operations, our workforce was reduced from about 2,900 at the beginning of 1995 to about 1,300 later in 1996. To help employees plan for a smooth transition to retirement or to launch new careers elsewhere, outplacement and dislocated worker programs are now available for employees affected by the shutdown.

Our second major change in 1995 involved significant enhancements to the combination rolling mill. Coincidentally, we began a three-week outage to complete enhancements at the combination mill on November 18, the same day we stopped making iron and steel. Those enhancements were completed in mid December.

During the outage at the mill, about $26 million in enhancements were completed to improve quality, throughput and productivity. There are product quality benefits from the use of continuously cast blooms, as well as from improvements to the mill, cooling bed and rotary straighteners to produce a more consistent product.

One of the enhancements is a new storage facility to hold incoming semifinished steel. The steel is separated by type and metallurgical grade and moved, when needed, to the entry end of the combination mill on pallet carriers specifically designed for semifinished steel transport. The mill uses continuously cast material from Pennsylvania Steel Technologies and other sources.

Our coke ovens are meeting the dual challenge of operating in an environmentally responsible manner and securing outside customers. Although we continue to supply coke to our sister divisions at Burns Harbor and Sparrows Point, we are also having some success in supplying other steelmakers. The coke ovens department has an excellent team spirit that helps it through even the most demanding challenges, such as the January blizzard.

To better serve our facilities and our customers, we have completely reengineered our business processes and functions. We are now organized into five teams - production and maintenance for the structural operations, coke for the coke oven business, administrative services, industrial services and marketing. Our marketing teams are aligned along major consuming groups of customers to further improve service.

We have eliminated layers of management to expedite decision making and to more actively involve all employees in our businesses. We have also located all salaried employees associated with the structural business in a new office building next to the combination mill to improve communications and service.

During the past few months, we faced change head-on and are now in a much better position to be long-term contributors to our customers and to Bethlehem Steel. Structural shapes were revolutionized by Bethlehem Steel in the early 1900s, and we are keeping that pioneering spirit alive today with innovative products backed up by personalized customer service and technical support. Our products and our services are supported by a workforce committed to our customers' success.