RECESSION WATCH: 38 Idled At Lewis County Plant, 140 Allegheny Woods

(02/09/2009)
A steel piping company is idling operations at its Jane Lew plant in Lewis County. Five employees remain working at the location.

It has laid off 38 hourly steel-pipe workers and eight salaried employees.

PTC Alliance says it will close the plant until the economy improves.

"It certainly is hard to deal with. With the automotive industry taking a big hit, that certainly had a big impact on our business. So with that in mind we had to idle the plant right now," said general foreman Jerry Duchon.

The company's website says it "is a leading manufacturer and marketer of welded and cold drawn mechanical steel tubing and tubular shapes, fabricated parts and precision components."

WOOD PRODUCT LAYOFF - Allegheny Wood Products has reduced production at four sawmills in West Virginia and one in Pennsylvania, causing 140 workers to be without jobs.

That means those mills will have only one shift daily.

The workers affected have already been notified through written notices.

The company says the cuts are due to a lack of demand for wood products on the U.S. and international markets.