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Wednesday, March 05, 2003

By Jim McKay, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

A private investor has agreed to buy and restart a closed factory in St. Marys, Elk County, formerly operated by a now-bankrupt Pittsburgh company that supplied steelmakers with electrodes used to melt scrap metal.

CG Electrodes Acquisition LLC, a company formed by Nathan Milikowsky of Chestnut Hill, Mass., signed a purchase agreement to buy the factory, according to Renaissance Partners, a management buyout firm that arranged the pending sale.

The sale of the graphite electrode manufacturing business of The Carbide/Graphite Group Inc. must be approved by a bankruptcy court. Carbide/Graphite closed operations in St. Marys, Niagara Falls, N.Y., and Texas last year after filing for bankruptcy protection in 2001.

Leo A. Keevican Jr., managing director of Renaissance Partners, said the deal may be presented to the court for approval this month. A revived plant could employ 120.