Coal Age

JUN 2016

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58 www.coalage.com June 2016 suppliers news Kanawha River Railroad to Begin Operations The Kanawha River Railroad (KNWA), a subsidiary of Watco Trans- portation Services, has reached an agreement with Norfolk South- ern Corp. (NS) to lease and increase operations on 309 miles of rail line in Ohio and West Virginia. The lines run from Refugee, Ohio, to Alloy, West Virginia, and Cornelia, West Virginia, to Mul- lens, West Virginia. The KNWA plans to begin the process of seek- ing approval of the transaction from the Surface Transportation Board (STB), and expects to begin operations in July. "The Watco team is excited to serve customers in Ohio and West Virginia," said Watco CCO Ed McKechnie. "Our team is pre- pared to offer our new customers in the agriculture, energy and chemical industries the transportation service product they need to move their product to their end customer." KNWA plans to return the entire main line between West Virgin- ia and the Columbus area to daily operation. NS suspended oper- ations on part of the line in Ohio in early 2016 due to declining rail traffic volumes and rerouted traffic. "Our growth in Ohio and West Virginia will provide us the oppor- tunity to serve new customers and build lasting relationships with local communities along the lines," said Rob Thrall, vice president of business development for Watco Cos. KNWA will soon begin the hiring process to ensure uninter- rupted service to rail customers on the line and to restore service on portions of the main line not currently being operated. "The team we will assemble to operate the KNWA will make sure that our customers' transportation needs will continue to be met ev- ery day," said Thrall. "Following Watco's Customer First Founda- tion Principles, we will strive to value our customers, value our people and safely improve every day." The KNWA will become the 36 th short line railroad oper- ated by WTS. The WTS network covers 4,500 miles of track and ships more than half a million carloads annually. WTS short lines transport a variety of commodities such as agricultural and food products, lumber and forest products, paper and paper goods, in- frastructure metals and minerals, chemicals, plastics, and energy products. WTS serves more than 1,000 customers on its lines and strives to create value for them every day. Ashland Issues Updated Reference Guide for Specialty Chemicals Ashland Inc. published a new third-edition update to its Per- formance Specialties Reference Guide. This in-depth tool covers the company's industrial specialty prod- ucts. Products in the guide are divided into four major groups: vinyl monomers, per- formance polymers, specialty chemicals, and surfactants, solvents and intermedi- ates. They cover the core chemistries sold through Ashland's Performance Specialties unit: hydroxyethyl cellulose, methylcellu- lose, carboxymethylcellulose, hydroxypro- pylcellulose, and vinyl pyrrolidones and its derivatives. The reference guide provides detailed descriptions of chemistry types, chemical characterizations, functionality, physical properties, performance characteristics, applications and benefits. It also provides a com- plete list of generic chemical names for Ashland's trademarked brand name products. To download a free digital copy of Ashland's Performance Specialties Reference Guide, visit www.ashland.com/ perfspec. Superior Industries Doubles Size of Nebraska Plant Superior Industries recently completed a major expansion at its manufacturing plant in Columbus, Nebraska. The expan- sion creates space and adds capabilities for building newly launched Guardian Horizontal Screens and portable process- ing plants for crushing, screening, washing and feeding, in ad- dition to the wet processing equipment already manufactured at the plant. "Although we incorporated the existing facility into our ex- pansion, it's like working in a brand new plant," said Michael Monaghan, general manager of Superior's operations in Nebras- ka. "We integrated the best principals of lean manufacturing and were able to achieve a straight line process. Product comes in as raw steel at one end and exit one of the two lines as finished, ready-to-ship equipment." In addition, the 44-year-old company doubled the engineer- ing staff dedicated to developing the screens, washers and porta- ble plants manufactured and shipped from Nebraska. "As our in- dustry optimistically looks to the future, we are excited to expand our product offering to support the growth," said Vice President of Sales John Garrison. "Best of all, the growth and development of our products and people is happening right here in the United States." Baldor's Belton Facility Achieves Safety Milestone Baldor Electric Co.'s gearbox manufacturing plant located in Belton, South Carolina, recently completed 18 years without a W i t h good c hemis t r y great things happen. ™ Performance Specialties Reference Guide Baldor's Belton plant (above) recently completed 18 years without a lost-time accident. The plant produces more than 100,000 gearboxes per year (inset).

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