By MARK REUTTER

Severstal, the embattled Russian owner of the Sparrows Point steel plant, has mailed a letter to employees denying that a final decision to shut the “L” blast furnace has been made, saying only that “different production scenarios are being considered.”

Last week, the Baltimore Sun reported that Thomas Russo, plant manager, told a Baltimore County official that the company would close its only blast furnace for an indeterminate period beginning in June. Russo made the same statement to a group of employees several weeks earlier, saying he believed the furnace would be idled in July rather than in June.

More than anything, the letter underscores the company’s concern that any premature announcement of a partial closure may cause customers to withdraw orders. Read the rest of this entry »

Sparrows Point today. The vertical "L" furnace at the far left is scheduled to be shut down indefinitely.

Story and photo by MARK REUTTER

The sad, painful and infuriating decline of Sparrows Point – onetime anvil of America’s swaggering industrial might, now reduced to a shell of its former self along Baltimore’s outer harbor – has moved to a new crisis stage. The report in today’s Baltimore Sun that the mill’s blast furnace will close next month for an indeterminate period was not unexpected, given the financial strains besetting the Point’s parent company, Russian steelmaker Severstal.

After spending $3.1 billion to buy up American mills and coal mines last year, Severstal is staggering from low demand and operating losses. Russian oligarch Alexei Mordashov, who owns Severstal and has seen his own personal fortune decline by $19 billion, is reportedly trying to off-load some or all of his North American assets.

This means that Sparrows Point – which has been under four owners since 2003 – may be sold again. Or reduced in size. Or simply closed.
Read the rest of this entry »

By FERN SHEN
Baltimore Sun management described its massive layoffs yesterday – 61 editorial-side staffers cut, a third of the 205-person newsroom – as a strategy for “success, not just survival, ” part of their transition into  ”a 24-hour local news-gathering media company.”

These brief comments in a small story on the Sun’s business page were pretty much all the explanation they were offering.

((UPDATE: Sun publisher Tim Ryan today sent a memo to staff   ‘regretting’ the impact of layoffs, explaining they’re part of a restructuring that will leave them better positioned to “help our company succeed and win in the future.”  Click through to read it.)) 

Brutal though it is, they seem to be saying, it’s the only way. Will Baltimore buy that?
Read the rest of this entry »

The Baltimore Sun yesterday laid off at least 15 editorial-side staffers, including the copy desk chief and a deputy managing editor.

A reporter called the layoffs “unprecedented” at the Sun because of the number of people asked, at one time, to essentially leave the paper against their will.

 Until this point, said general assignment reporter Gus Sentementes, the cutbacks at the Sun have come mostly in the form of buyouts, “so that, at the end of the day, they were essentially ‘voluntary.’”

“The people who remained, remained because they wanted to do the work, because they’ve been in the profession for years, because they can’t do anything else,” said Sentementes, who is also a volunteer for the Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild. 

When those people were told to leave yesterday, he said, “it was very emotional.”  
* Baltimore Business Journal and Daily Record coverage here.
* John McIntyre’s farewell on his blog.
* Editor & Publisher article saying “the exodus of editors is expected to reach 20.”
* For David Simon’s comments on his Facebook page, read on.
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