AK Steel sees 'better understanding' in negotiating contracts

Nov 15, 2004 | 08:16 AM | Scott Robertson

AK Steel Corp., Middletown, Ohio, is continuing to succeed in the contract game, settling more deals with customers, raw materials suppliers and labor. But the company's work is far from finished, according to James Wainscott, AK Steel's president and chief executive officer.

Wainscott, speaking during a conference call with steel industry analysts, said that at the start of 2004 one-third of the company's customer contracts were set to expire by year-end. He said that all of those contracts had been renegotiated at higher prices for next year, and the company had been able to negotiate modified deals for another one-third of its contracts that had expiration dates beyond the end of 2004.

That means two-thirds of AK's customer contracts have been renegotiated at what Wainscott said were "double-digit" percentage price increases for 2005 compared with this year. "And we're not done yet," he said. "We are actively involved (in talks with other customers) and we hope to complete some more by the end of this year."....