Braeburn Alloy Steel timeline Key dates in the history of Braeburn Alloy Steel and CCX: • 1897: Braeburn Alloy Steel founded as a producer of ball bearing steel for parent company Standard Steel & Bearings. • 1944: Braeburn is acquired by Continental Copper and Steel (CCX). • 1960: Hatfield Wire and Cable, a division of CCX that made wire containing asbestos, stops making small appliance wire. • 1982: Hatfield is closed and its assets sold off. • 1987: Steel-making phase of the division's operations were closed and its "conversion only" approach to the steel market began. • May 1994: CCX, previously listed on the New York Stock Exchange, becomes private. • June 2005: CCX stops making and selling mesh products used mostly as insect screening and construction materials. • March 2022: CCX files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
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Braeburn Alloy Steel filed for bankruptcy with the intent of being acquired by an affiliate of its largest customer and keeping the 125-year-old Lower Burrell business in operation.
CCX, which acquired Braeburn in 1944 and operates under its name, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in Delaware on Sunday. Chapter 11 allows a business to reorganize.
Forty-one employees work at Braeburn, a specialist in metal conversion.
Electralloy, an affiliate of G.O. Carlson in Oil City, is named as the proposed buyer.
“We have enjoyed an excellent relationship with Braeburn for many years and, when the opportunity to acquire the business presented itself, we felt it was a great match,” Tracy Rudolph, president and chief operating officer of G.O. Carlson, said in a statement. “We look forward to continuing to provide employment for the skilled workers at Braeburn and serve its clients and vendors with the same level of satisfaction it has for decades.”
Braeburn’s owners have been looking to sell for some time, general manager Felix Zaffina said.
“Braeburn Alloy Steel division is proud of our long, rich history achieving our customer’s expectations and goals, business relationships with our suppliers and to our skilled workforce from our Alle-Kiski Lower Burrell location,” Zaffina said. “We, the Braeburn family, are looking forward to the opportunities G.O. Carlson has offered to continue this tradition. We hope that that this ownership change will facilitate our growth potential within the metal forging industry and ensure rewarding career opportunities to our workforce in the future.”
Braeburn will continue operating through Chapter 11 and serving its customers and suppliers without interruption, according to a statement from SC&H Capital, an investment banker CCX retained to provide consulting and advisory services for its restructuring.
“It will be business as usual at Braeburn while we complete the proposed sale to G.O. Carlson,” SC&H Capital principal Matt LoCascio said. “We are hopeful it will be approved on an expedient basis given the marketing process we ran to identify potential acquirers. The team at G.O. Carlson … have been great to work with, and everyone is motivated to complete the sale as quickly as possible.”
Eric Monzo, an attorney representing CCX in the bankruptcy filing, said they will file bidding procedures and a sale motion in the coming days. They have a tentative sale hearing scheduled for May 9.
CCX’s bankruptcy statement was made by Francis Feeney, vice president of finance and chief financial officer for CCX since 1989.
According to Feeney’s declaration, the covid-19 pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine have impacted Braeburn’s business. Losses in sales volume and expenses associated with its main processing equipment and loss of experienced personnel were cited as reasons for the voluntary bankruptcy filing.
Located along the Allegheny River in Lower Burrell’s Braeburn section, Braeburn’s multi-building plant totals 220,000 square feet on about 9 acres of 43 acres owned by the company.
It has 35 employees represented by the United Steelworkers, whose contract expires June 30, and six nonunion workers.
Tony Montana, a Steelworkers spokesman, declined to comment.
Braeburn was founded in 1897 as a producer of ball bearing steel for its parent, Standard Steel & Bearings. It was acquired by Continental Copper and Steel (CCX) in 1944 and operated as a steel mill until 1987.
The company now specializes in converting customer-owned raw material into forged and rolled products, receiving steel billets of various alloys weighing 5,000 to 30,000 pounds. It processes metal alloys including titanium, refractory metals, high-end nickel alloys and stainless steel, tool steel, carbon steel and alloy steels for customers in Pennsylvania and Ohio.
In the declaration, Feeney said the business filed for bankruptcy because of “a combination of significant liquidity constraints and weaker than expected sales and performance during the covid-19 pandemic and more recently in the wake of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict.”
He said major customers notified Braeburn in early 2020 to expect a drop-off in volume caused by the pandemic and its effect on the worldwide economy.
Braeburn received a roughly $600,000 Paycheck Protection Program loan in May 2020, which the U.S. Small Business Administration forgave in July 2021. The company used the loan to pay employees when it was closed for two weeks in 2020 because of covid.
Braeburn applied for a second loan but did not get it, which Feeney’s declaration states “had a significant adverse effect on the continual funding of the operations.”
The company faced more covid difficulties in December, when four plant employees were infected, forcing it close until January. That closure, ahead of a routine shutdown the last week of the year, “further exacerbated a cash-strapped operation,” Feeney’s declaration states.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine and corresponding sanctions have contributed to fluctuations in the market for metals, nickel in particular, and has impacted the price and availability of metals around the world, Feeney said.
Brian C. Rittmeyer is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Brian at 724-226-4701, brittmeyer@triblive.com or via Twitter .
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Braeburn Alloy Steel timeline Key dates in the history of Braeburn Alloy Steel and CCX: • 1897: Braeburn Alloy Steel founded as a producer of ball bearing steel for parent company Standard Steel & Bearings. • 1944: Braeburn is acquired by Continental Copper and Steel (CCX). • 1960: Hatfield Wire and Cable, a division of CCX that made wire containing asbestos, stops making small appliance wire. • 1982: Hatfield is closed and its assets sold off. • 1987: Steel-making phase of the division's operations were closed and its "conversion only" approach to the steel market began. • May 1994: CCX, previously listed on the New York Stock Exchange, becomes private. • June 2005: CCX stops making and selling mesh products used mostly as insect screening and construction materials. • March 2022: CCX files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
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