CHICAGO — Talks between Max Aicher North America Inc. (MANA) and United Steelworkers union Local 1005 failed to produce a new labor agreement, both sides told AMM Tuesday.

Another round of talks between the company and union, which represents workers at the Hamilton, Ontario, threaded bar mill, is scheduled for Dec. 18, the parties said.

Both USW Local 1005 and MANA, a division of Freilassing, Germany-based Max Aicher GmbH & Co. KG, declined to comment on what issues might have proven to be sticking points in bargaining.

"We’re still quite far apart. ... We’re trying to narrow things down," Local 1005 president Rolf Gerstenberger told AMM.

"I’ll confirm that," MANA chief financial officer David Cameron said.

Negotiations have been under way since the second quarter of this year (amm.com, Dec. 7). MANA inherited the current expired labor contract from U.S. Steel Corp. as it looked to restart the bar mill assets of the former Stelco Inc. (amm.com, Nov. 29, 2010), which it had acquired from the Pittsburgh-based steelmaker.

MANA hasn’t produced or rolled steel at the Hamilton facility since roughly September 2011, the union has said. The company, which last month announced layoffs, has confirmed that it isn’t in production. It has blamed the situation, in part, on its lack of a "competitive" labor agreement in North America.