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Wheeling Pittsburgh Steel
Enters Scrap Partnership

May 19, 2004 — Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel Corp. and Wheeling-based Herman Strauss, Inc. have entered a strategic scrap agreement that makes Herman Strauss the scrap steel operator and exclusive scrap steel provider to Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel.

As part of the agreement, Herman Strauss will build, own and operate the scrap facility that will supply all of Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel's scrap needs, including scrap feedstock for the company’s new electric arc furnace. Construction of the EAF, which is located at Wheeling Pittsburgh Steel's Mingo Junction Plant, is scheduled for completion this fall.

"This innovative agreement ensures that Herman Strauss, Inc. will play an important role as Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel begins its evolution to a company using the most modern EAF technology available in the world today," said Donald E. Keaton, Vice President, Steel Manufacturing & Procurement.

The partnership will allow Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel to take advantage of Herman Strauss' expertise and years of experience in the scrap steel industry, while freeing the company to focus its efforts — and capital — on the core businesses of steel production and metal products.

Herman Strauss, Inc. is expected to provide in excess of 100,000 tons per month of steel scrap to Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel. In addition to steel scrap, Herman Strauss will handle other raw materials that can be used as feedstock to the EAF, including pig iron and hot briquetted iron (HBI).

"We will have access to steel scrap from the entire eastern half of the United States using barges that have access to the entire Mississippi and Ohio river waterway systems, as well as two railroads that service our Mingo Junction Plant," Keaton noted. Locally generated scrap will continue to be trucked into the plant.

Carter Strauss, president of Herman Strauss, Inc., acknowledged that this agreement will establish Herman Strauss as one of the largest scrap management, brokerage and processing companies in the United States. "It is a significant step for our company and the Upper Ohio Valley," Strauss added.

Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel Corp. is a metal products company with 3,100 employees in facilities located in Steubenville, Mingo Junction, Yorkville, and Martins Ferry, Ohio; Beech Bottom and Follansbee, W.Va.; and Allenport, Pa. The company's Wheeling Corrugating Division has 12 plants located throughout the United States.

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