“The fuels and coke units are distinct businesses with different business models, different sets of customers and no significant integration or synergies,” said Lynn L. Elsenhans, chairman and chief executive of Sunoco. “We believe that, through a separation from Sunoco and with a management team solely focused on pursuing opportunities, SunCoke Energy will be better positioned to serve its customers who are the world’s leading steel manufacturers.”
SunCoke is building a coke plant in Middletown off Yankee Road near the Monroe border. Once operational, it would provide up to 550,000 tons of coke and 50 megawatts of electricity to AK Steel Corp.
The facility is slated to be complete in the third quarter of 2011, around the same time as the proposed division separation from Sunoco. However, Thomas Golembeski, spokesman for the company, said the separation should have no direct impact on the plant. To date, the project is on track.
“Middletown is still a very important project to SunCoke,” he said.
AK Steel also buys coke and has an interest in the electricity produced at SunCoke’s Haverhill North Coke Company plant in Franklin Furnace, Ohio. SunCoke operates plants in Vansant, Va., and Chicago in addition to a facility in Vitoria, Brazil.
Contact this reporter at (513) 705-2843 or jheffner@coxohio.com.
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