Employees receive letter from Crucible Materials

[Nathan the Machinist]

Saturday, May 23, 2009

"Four of the local and sub district leaders from the United Steelworkers Union received the letter Friday, while many of the employees found it in their mailboxes Saturday.



Crucible filed for bankruptcy earlier this month and this latest letter states that unless the company can find financing, a buyer or an approved reorganization plan, operations may come to an end at the end of August.



"Not having the projected business and not having a bank willing to loan the money to continue operation, it kind of left them without any choice to do what they did," said Richard Knowles, the USW sub-district director.

"




They are currently producing steel, but it is beginning to appear less likely to emerge from chapter 11. They have a very high energy bill, I believe it is something like one million a month, and the power companies are wanting to shut off power, which obviously would spell the end. They are not currently allowed to do that, but they have registered an objection with the bankruptcy court to allow them to.


There is news that prospective buyers are looking at buying the company, though it appears they're waiting on the "fire sale". So, while it appears that someone will buy some of the operation, it is unlikely they will continue to produce all of the materials they make today. There has been attempts to market S30V as a material for things like extrusion screws (perfect for things like filled PVC, which destroy normal screws through several mechanisms) I am worried that it and some of our other favorites may disappear.

Crucible Materials operates a steel mill in New York, a smaller compaction metals mill in Pennsylvania, and a number of service centers around the country. They employ 1900 people. Crucible Materials is owned by its employees.

Y'all cross your fingers.

 

[Fellhoelter]

Damn....

 

[Rusty McDonald]

Crap! I hope my order gets to me before all this happens.

 

[Josh K]

This is quite sad. A lot of wonderful steels, especially S30V, are going to go out the window. I think I'm going to spend my summer buying up stock Spyderco Militarys.

 

[JTknives]

crap crap and another crap. that just sucks. i dont have the stock i need and dont have the money to buy it all ether.

 

[Ryan Minchew]

This sucks. Kind of what I expected after the threads from last week. I'm in the same boat as you JT.

 

[Hmathews]

This is bad news all the way around. I really feel for the people involved that are caught in this through no fault of their own. I hope and pray that some one recognizes the value of the company intact and will provide the financing that is necessary to see them through the tough times.

 

[Nathan the Machinist]

I really feel for the people involved that are caught in this through no fault of their own.

Crucible has been around a long time (about 50 years I think) and are involved in many industries (apparently too involved in auto). I will miss their HSS lathe cutting tool blanks.

There are a lot of long time employees who may be at risk of losing their pensions.

The current state of America's automotive industry is an embarrassment to all Americans, and is directly responsible for the injury to Crucible and many other otherwise excellent companies. What is ironic is that if you ever meet someone from the auto industry they can be so arrogant. Shmucks.

 

[Samael]

Oh. My. God.

It's pretty bad when being the best isn't enough.

Here's hoping for a miracle.

 

[Troop]

Well, there goes the CruciforgeV, or whatever it's called.

 

[Nathan the Machinist]

Well, there goes the CruciforgeV, or whatever it's called.

Well, yes and no. I heard they ran something like 80,000 lbs of it. But, yes, I have to think that something like that won't be picked up by the new owners. But, who knows...

 

[James_Terrio]

Looks like I'm gonna be on foot this summer... I need a beater vehicle but I think I'm gonna stock up on steel instead. What the heck, I need the exercise anyway.

 

[nate3993]

I'm speechless. I pray they don't shut down. This would be a blow like none other.

 

[Whoever Wherever]

Where is the bail out money for this industry. As if American steel hasn't suffered enough.

 

[69_knives]

Well, there goes the CruciforgeV, or whatever it's called.

I emailed them some questions with "CruForgeV" in the title and they responded back calling it 1086V. So I guess it's 1086V.

I wish I'd learned about it a week earlier than I did as I would have ordered from them instead of the 1095 I got from Admiral.

 

[the possum]

I too hope the company can get things sorted out & keep going. It would suck to lose a steel company that's shown itself to be such a friend to knifemakers.

I really feel for the people involved that are caught in this through no fault of their own. I hope and pray that some one recognizes the value of the company intact and will provide the financing that is necessary to see them through the tough times.

Where is the bail out money for this industry?

I don't know how the company handles things, but find myself a bit curious. I was raised by German farmers, so maybe my views on finances are just old fashioned... For us, every year could be great or terrible, depending on the weather. When we do have good crops, we try to save as much as possible to get us through the inevitable drought years in the future. We've made it through several bad years in a row thanks to this philosophy. The company I work for now has similar practices.

So I guess I'm just wondering how a company that seems to have been going strong for 50 years could find itself on the brink of bankruptcy after just several months. Why are they looking for someone to rescue them financially- couldn't they have done this themselves? Hope that's not coming across negatively; I realize they may have some kind of rules that prevent this. ??

 

[FLymon]

This is certainly a very unfortunate situation for allot of people. Just like the failing auto industry has had allot to do with Crucible's current problems, there will be good companies that will be hurt by their probable failure also.
Will good people get hurt? Sure.
Could there be an appreciable interruption in the supply of their super steels? Maybe, maybe not.
The good news (if you want the silver lining) is, if Crucible goes into total bankruptcy the assets will be sold. The biggest assets they have are the copyrights and patents of the steels they make. Some company WILL buy those and start making them ASAP. That, you can be sure of.

 

[jdm61]

So who has any of the CruForge V right now?

 

[THE PUNISHER]

hate to hear the news.itz not getting any better here,people are fighting to keep what they have................

 

[Whoever Wherever]

I am not supporting bailing out companies. But we are non the less doing so, I think Crucible is probably more deserving than the car companies and certainly millions of times more deserving than the banking industry.