Story Photos
 Photo by Roger Werth Longview Aluminum plant manager Lou Locke walks past the plant's rolling stock, lined up for review by potential bidders. The Dovebid auction will begin Tuesday. |
Bidders eye smelter's remnants
Monday, April 19, 2004 7:28 AM PDT
By Pat Forgey
Printable version
E-mail this articleAluminum from the Reynolds Metals Co. smelter in Longview helped win World War II and provided jobs for hundreds of local families over the years.
That is all gone now, and soon so will the equipment that workers used to make that aluminum.
Starting Tuesday, an auctioneer will begin selling off that equipment to pay off bankrupt Longview Aluminum's creditors.
Professional auction firm Dovebid Inc. has been working for weeks preparing the plant's equipment for auction. In some cases, they've hired former aluminum workers to tag the sale items, said plant manage Lou Locke.
The auction will run from Tuesday through Thursday, and be held at the Kelso Red Lion and over the internet at www.dovebid.com. The auction begins at 8 a.m. Bidders can view the merchandise at the plant site Monday.
Potential buyers have come from around the world and neighboring industrial plants, hoping to go home with equipment ranging from the Schwinn bicycles employees used to get around the 500-acre site to potlines to wastewater treatment facilities.
Berkley Tack, a Rainier blacksmith, said he's interested in bidding on some of the plant's shop equipment, and hopes that as much of the equipment as possible will stay in the area.
"I've seen stuff go to places it shouldn't and get scrapped," he said.
Other potential local buyers range from small fabrication shops on Kelso's Talley Way to Kalama's Steelscape Inc.
The auction will be the last nail in the coffin for the smelter. Former Longview Aluminum owner Michael Lynch lost control of the smelter last year. A bankruptcy trustee has sold off the plant's stocks of equipment and raw materials to raise money to pay ongoing costs. Millions of dollars worth of alumina, the raw material from which aluminum is made, and chemicals, and aluminum ingots also have been sold.
Bankruptcy trustee Bill Brandt said he tried hard to find a buyer for the plant, but given current aluminum and power prices, the plant simply isn't competitive, he said. Brandt said his trustee firm, Development Specialists Inc., contacted every company in the metals industry that might have been able to operate the plant. Though several looked at it closely, there were no takers, he said.
Brandt now hopes to raise as much as $5 million at the auction, but that won't pay all of Longview Aluminum's outstanding unsecured creditors, which Brandt estimated at nearing $100 million.
"I still think the auction may raise a lot of money," said Brandt.
A potential buyer for some parts of the plant, including ship-unloading equipment and silos, appeared recently. Brandt said if a deal is reached to purchase those items for use on site by a new company, they'll be pulled from the auction.
The money raised will be used to pay off creditors, and will likely be enough to pay debts incurred since the bankruptcy filing. Those debts have top priority, according to the court, and include costs for power, legal fees, and other expenses. Remaining money will go toward unpaid taxes and wage claims, but many creditors will get little, said Brandt.
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