April 08, 2007

The construction was completed on the Block Plant in April 2007 and the Silicon Carbide Bagging Plant was completed in December 2007.

In July of 2006, Miller began construction of both a new block plant and a new Silicon Carbide bagging plant to service our combined SiC and briquetted alloy product line sales in the mid-West. For some years now, these services were outsourced to another company located in Channahon, Illinois. Late in 2006 the decision was made to construct these new facilities in order to improve control over our factors of production and to enhance the competitive positions of these products in the marketplace. The outsourcing arrangement with Baird Concrete located in Coshocton, OH, our long-term briquetting service provider for the Northeast will continue on as before.

The new plant was built on the same site as our recently constructed Carbon processing facility which is now almost two and one-half years old. With all three plants located under one roof on a common site, optimal efficiencies will be achieved as the costs of much of the rolling stock, labor and management can be shared across the three product lines. Further contributing to cost efficiencies, the Seneca Processing Facility is only a few blocks away from the Illinois River thereby permitting ready access to barge shipments of the raw material feedstocks for these three plants. Rail service by means of a spur directly into the plant is furnished by the CSX railroad.