Employees of AK Steel’s Middletown Works coke plant have earned the Max Eward Safety Award for the fifth consecutive year. The award, presented by the American Coke and Coal Chemicals Institute (ACCCI), recognizes the member coke plant having the best U.S. safety record during 2004.

This is the seventh time in the past eight years that the plant has earned ACCCI’s highest safety honor, an accomplishment that no other ACCCI-member plant has surpassed.

Middletown Works coke plant employees worked for five consecutive years without suffering a single lost-time injury. AK Steel’s Ashland, Ky., coke plant, also with an outstanding safety record, finished second in the competition for the 2004 Max Eward award.

“Nothing matters more to us at AK Steel than safety,” said James L. Wainscott, AK Steel President and CEO. “That’s why we’re especially pleased that employees of our Middletown coke plant are being honored for their outstanding safety performance. Their record of working for five consecutive years with no lost-time injuries is a truly exceptional achievement.”

The Max Eward Safety Award, which is named for a former chairman of the institute’s manufacturing, environmental, and safety and health committee, will be presented at ACCCI’s spring meeting in May.

"This achievement by the employees of AK Steel’s Middletown Works coke plant is nothing short of extraordinary,” said David A. Saunders, President of ACCCI. “The Ashland Works coke plant employees also are to be congratulated for a job well done. Coke plants are challenging work environments from the standpoint of keeping employees safe, and the company has done a tremendous job year after year of protecting its most important asset — its people."

Headquartered in Middletown, AK Steel produces flat-rolled carbon, stainless and electrical steel products for automotive, appliance, construction and manufacturing markets, as well as tubular steel products.