Ampco-Pittsburgh Corp. completed the sale of its Canadian specialty steel subsidiary, ASW Steel Inc. (ASW), to Valbruna Canada Ltd., a subsidiary of Acciaierie Valbruna S.p.A., of Vicenza, Italy. With production facilities in Fort Wayne, Ind., and in Italy, Valbruna produces stainless steels, nickel alloys and titanium long products. It has an annual output of approximately 200,000 tons of specialty steels.

In related news, Ampco-Pittsburgh completed the sale of its Avonmore, Pa., cast-roll manufacturing facility, Akers National Roll, to an affiliate of WHEMCO Inc. WHEMCO, through its six operating companies, supplies heavy industrial components for the metals, power-generation, mining and shipbuilding industries. Their core competencies include heat treating, melting, casting, forging and machining.

“The divestiture of ASW is consistent with Ampco-Pittsburgh’s strategy to concentrate on assets critical to our success in the Forged and Cast Engineered Products segment,” said Brett McBrayer, Ampco-Pittsburgh’s CEO. “Excess capacity and high operating costs in our cast-roll system have made the operation of the Avonmore facility unsustainable.”

Through its operating subsidiary, Union Electric Steel, Ampco-Pittsburgh produces forged and cast rolls for the worldwide steel and aluminum industries. It also produces ingot and open-die forged products for the oil and gas, aluminum and plastic extrusion industries. The Carnegie, Pa.-based company operates manufacturing facilities in the U.S., U.K., Sweden, Slovenia and China.