Dozens of steel jobs coming to Alle-Kiski Valley in new venture at old Hyde Park Foundry

A vacant warehouse in a historic Hyde Park foundry is about to get busy.

Three Alle-Kiski residents with almost a century of combined mill experience working in the Valley’s steel industry have partnered to open a new metal toll processing business in the former hot metal section of the former Hyde Park Foundry.

It will be the sixth location for Houston-based TSA Processing and its first in the Northeast. The targeted opening date is Oct. 1.

“I want to see jobs,” said Kevin Ashbaugh, a Vandergrift native who is the TSA plant manager.

TSA sales manager Neal Silliman of Lower Burrell and Vice President of Operations Steve Laich of Leechburg round up the management team overseeing operations in Hyde Park.

Silliman said TSA plans to initially hire 25 to 50 full-time employees, at a starting pay rate of $15 to $18 an hour with benefits.

A hiring fair is planned for September.

He said eventually about 100 employees could be needed to handle operations.

Ashbaugh, 56, of Kiski Township will be the third generation of his family to work in the foundry.

Hyde Park Foundry was founded in 1895. It’s owned by George Hadanich of the Washington, Pa.-based Hadanich Machine Manufacturing.

Hadanich said renovations and upgrades are underway at the 50,000-square-foot location. Improvements completed during the past few months include a new roof, insulation, LED lighting, gas heating, reinforced concrete floors and a new road leading up to the facility.

TSA and Hadanich declined to provide specifics on the financial terms of the three-year lease agreement.

Five potential warehouse locations in the Alle-Kiski Valley, including Lower Burrell, Avonmore, New Kensington and Oakmont, were scouted as potential locations, according to TSA.

Silliman said the Hyde Park location was chosen because it offered advantages from a transportation standpoint. A rail line is just yards away, and major highways such as Route 28 are nearby.

The Hyde Park facility will process large coils of steel and other metals that come from domestic and international customers and cut the metals to customers’ specifications.

“These metals start off in a big mill and we end up with … up to 50,000 pounds of coiled metal, and we will uncoil them, flatten it and cut it to the customer’s requested lengths,” Laich said.

The Hyde Park facility will be able to cut metal ranging in length from 2 feet to 40 feet. Metals that will be processed include stainless steel, carbon steel, high-tech alloys and aluminum.

Laich recalled a time when the Leechburg area employed about 5,000 workers at Allegheny Ludlum, before its West Leechburg and Bagdad plants closed.

He said helping to bring new jobs to the area was a priority.

“Leechburg has lost manufacturing jobs. You’ve gotta really make something to flourish,” Laich said. “Manufacturing has to be the base.”

Silliman said the Hyde Park location is expected to initially produce about $2 million to $5 million in annual income.

TSA officials said they hope to partner with nearby ATI in Vandergrift, but officials would not confirm whether any agreements with ATI had been reached.

“We are happy to see local processing expand in our region and are evaluating potential opportunities to serve our customer base with their capabilities,” ATI spokeswoman Natalie Gillespie said.

Ashbaugh describes the new venture as “something I’ve wanted my entire life.”

“It’s a small valley we live in, and we are fiscally depressed. I felt fortunate to work in the mill, and when you get business in, you’ll have more traffic. I want to see jobs. We need to move forward in our Valley,” he said.

“When I was in (the old foundry), it was dark and dirty, and now it’s new,” Ashbaugh added. “My intentions are to keep it that way and make it nice for prospective customers.”