April 6, 2006 — Kentucky-based North American Stainless (NAS) has awarded Harsco Corp.’s MultiServ mill services division a new five-year contract to take over responsibilities for on-site slag and scrap material handling services for the mill's meltshop and scrap yard operations. The agreement, which begins this month, is MultiServ's first formal contract with NAS, although MultiServ has had a long relationship with the company's parent, the Spain-based Acerinox Group, at mills in Europe and South Africa.

Under a new four-year agreement, MultiServ will screen up to two million tons of iron ore pellets per year at U. S. Steel's Great Lakes works in Michigan. MultiServ will also assume responsibility for pellet screening services at U. S. Steel's Fairfield Works in Alabama, also under a new four-year agreement. The contract at the Fairfield Works is MultiServ's first at this location, and also includes responsibilities for the transport of by-product mill scale. MultiServ supports several U. S. Steel locations throughout the United States and Eastern Europe.

Together, the new agreements are valued at more than $45 million over their duration.

Harsco Corp. is a diversified, worldwide industrial services and products company with 2005 sales of $2.8 billion. The company's four business groups provide mill services, access services, engineered products and services, and gas containment and control technologies to customers around the globe. Harsco employs approximately 21,000 people in 45 countries of operation.

Operating at some 160 mills in over 30 countries, MultiServ is the world's largest provider of on-site, outsourced services to the steel and metals industry. The division typically operates under renewable multi-year contracts at each location, with an average contract renewal rate in the range of approximately 90-95% over the past 20 years.

At year-end 2005, MultiServ's base of long-term mill services contracts had a future revenue value estimated at $4.3 billion, an increase of more than 15% over year-end 2004 following the inclusion of the company's acquisition of the Northern Hemisphere mill services operations of Brambles Industrial Services in December 2005.