---

AK Steel Wins Inaugural Indiana Chamber Safety Award

11 June 1999

AK Steel Wins Inaugural Indiana Chamber Safety Award

    MIDDLETOWN, Ohio, June 10 -- AK Steel's Rockport
Works has been honored for its innovative and effective safety program.  The
Indiana Chamber of Commerce presented its inaugural Chamber Safety Award to
the plant based on its comprehensive safety training program and safety
record.  The presentation was made in Indianapolis June 8.
    "Safety-first is not a motto at AK Steel, it is simply the way we do
business," said Richard M. Wardrop, Jr., chairman and chief executive officer
of AK Steel.  "We have no priority higher than the safety of all who enter our
plants."
    Since operations began in June of 1998, AK Steel's Rockport Works'
employees have not experienced a single lost workday.  For the construction of
the complex, which began in January of 1997, the lost workday injury rate is
0.40 to date, or less than one lost workday injury for every 200,000 hours
worked.  According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the national average
lost workday injury rate for similar special trades construction projects is
5.3, or about 13 times higher than for the Rockport Works project.
    Since construction began for Rockport Works, AK Steel has conducted site-
specific safety training for more than 17,000 individuals, and has also
conducted more than 20,000 pre-employment and random drug tests.
    The first unit completed was a continuous hot-dip galvanizing and
galvannealing line that began operations in June of 1998, about three months
ahead of schedule.  The remaining unit under construction, a continuous carbon
pickling line, is scheduled to begin operations later this year.
    AK Steel produces low-carbon and stainless flat-rolled steel for
automotive, appliance, construction and other industries.  The company employs
about 5,800 people in plants and offices in Middletown, Ashland, Kentucky and
Rockport, Indiana.