Birmingham Steel Corporation Completes Sale of Cleveland Facility; Sale of Idled American Steel & Wire Plant Reduces Debt by $21 Million.Business Editors BIRMINGHAM, Ala.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 1, 2002 Birmingham Steel Corporation (OTCBB OTCBB See OTC Bulletin Board (OTCBB). :BIRS BIRS Banff International Research Station (Canada) BIRS Banca Internazionale per la Ricostruzione e lo Sviluppo (Italian) BIRS Basic Indexing and Retrieval System BIRS Battlefield Information Reporting System ) today announced that it has completed the sale of its idled American Steel & Wire special bar quality (SBQ SBQ Sociedade Brasileira de Quimica (Portugese) SBQ Special Bar Quality ) facility in Cleveland, Ohio "Cleveland" redirects here. For the Cleveland metropolitan area, see . For other uses, see Cleveland (disambiguation). Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County, the most populous county in the state. , to Charter Steel, a subsidiary of Charter Manufacturing, Inc. of Mequon, Wisconsin. The Company had previously signed an exclusive purchase option agreement with Charter on January 9, 2002. As a result of the transaction, Birmingham Steel will reduce debt by approximately $21 million. In addition, the Company will eliminate approximately $500,000 per month in carrying costs Carrying costs Costs that increase with increases in the level of investment in current assets. related to the Cleveland plant, which ceased operations July 2001. John D. Correnti, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Birmingham Steel, said that sale of the Cleveland facility was a key element in the Company's plan to reduce debt and return to profitability. The Cleveland sale is the second transaction in recent months that Birmingham Steel has completed as part of its turnaround plan. In December 2001, the Company sold a mini-mill facility in Cartersville, Georgia, which eliminated Cartersville's operating losses and reduced debt by approximately $90 million. Birmingham Steel operates in the mini-mill sector of the steel industry and conducts operations at facilities located across the United States. The common stock of Birmingham Steel is traded on the OTC bulletin board OTC Bulletin Board An electronic quotation listing of the bid and asked prices of OTC stocks that do not meet the requirements to be listed on the NASDAQ stock-listing system. under the symbol "BIRS." Except for historical information, the matters described in the press release are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the safe-harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (PSLRA) implemented several significant substantive changes affecting certain cases brought under the federal securities laws, including changes related to pleading, discovery, liability, class representation and awards fees and of 1995. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially, including economic conditions, market demand factors, equipment breakdowns or failures, the Company's continued compliance with its financing arrangements and its principal debt agreements, as well as other risks described from time to time in the Company's periodic and special filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Any forward-looking statements contained in this document speak only as of the date hereof, and the Company disclaims any intent or obligation to update such forward-looking statements. |
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