The Timken Company, after securing a new five-year labor agreement, will move forward with a $225 million investment that was first reported by Industrial Heating in August 2011. The investment – at Timken’s Faircrest Steel Plant in Stark County, Ohio – will allow the company to improve productivity, expand its product range and increase capacity to serve growing demand for its specialty-alloy steel bars. A new ladle refiner and large-bloom continuous caster are central to the investment. The new equipment is expected to increase Faircrest’s shippable capacity by 25% and enable the production of a broader range of large-diameter bars.

Tuesday's ratification of a new extended labor agreement between Timken and members of United Steelworkers (USW) Local¬¬ 1123 establishes workforce stability through project construction and start-up in 2014. The labor agreement covers four facilities in Stark County through September 2017 and replaces an agreement that would have expired in the midst of the project's start-up in 2013.