Steel Mills
March 31, 2016
Kentucky to Extend Tax Incentives for AK Steel Ashland Works
Written by Sandy Williams
AK Steel will get help to restart the Ashland Works furnace from Kentucky legislators. The state Senate passed a house bill on Tuesday that would extend economic incentives from a 2014 measure to help AK Steel refurbish and restart the idled blast furnace at Ashland. The incentives were due to expire in July.
AK Steel planned to use the 2014 tax incentives to repair and reline the furnace. Upgrades were stopped when the furnace was idled in December 2015 in response to severe cuts in steel pricing and demand due to high levels of dumped and subsidized foreign steel into the U.S. market. The company laid off 500 of the 900 employees and created a ripple effect in the local coal industry, causing layoffs of miners in Eastern Kentucky that supply the metallurgical coal for Ashland Works.
