The Butler area should feel buoyed by AK Steel's announcement Monday that it will be investing $180 million in its local plant and one in Zanesville, Ohio.

The announcement not only bolsters the local plant for the short term but also indicates confidence in the plant's long-term prospects.

That's good news for the Butler area economy. The Butler plant employs approximately 1,500 production workers. Bad times for the plant would be painful for the local region.

While some people might regard it as a cruel perspective, the fact is that one person's grief or hardship oftentimes is another person's livelihood. That premise applies to what is happening at the local AK Steel operations.

Two of the reasons locally produced electrical steel is so much in demand are the destruction wreaked by the disastrous 2005 hurricane season as well as the continuing needs stemming from the Iraq war.

"The capital investments announced today will help serve the robust markets for new, highly efficient electrical transformers in the United States and elsewhere around the world," said James L. Wainscott, AK Steel's top executive.

Combined with $55 million in improvements to the local and Zanesville plants announced in October 2006, the newly announced upgrade will not only increase steelmaking capacity but also lower production costs.

Bolstering the company's long-term bottom line bodes well for the economies with which its plants are intertwined.

Under the latest announcement, AK Steel will replace two of its three electric arc furnaces here with one capable of melting more than 1.45 million tons annually — approximately 40 percent more than is produced with the three-furnace operation. One of the three furnaces currently in place will be kept to provide additional manufacturing flexibility, the company said.

Additionally, equipment will be installed here to help increase shipments of electrical steels.

Installation of the new equipment won't come about overnight; the newly announced upgrades at Butler and Zanesville are expected to take until the end of 2009 to complete.

In the meantime, work is continuing on the upgrades tied to the October 2006 announcement. Alan McCoy, AK Steel's vice president for government and public relations, said Monday that those upgrades, which initially were targeted for completion in mid-2008, might be completed ahead of schedule.

Whether the California wildfires are producing needs that might have a positive impact on the local steel operation remains to be seen. Regardless, the latest announcement portends well for the specialty steel products for which the local plant has such a strong reputation.

In the past, AK Steel might have made some business decisions that still don't sit well with some current or former employees. However, the production facility now operated by AK Steel has been a pillar of the Butler area economy for a long time. The community cannot help but be uplifted by the news that that relationship will continue.