Jorgensen Forge, the Seattle-area aerospace manufacturer announced April 18 it will cease operations and close this year, after 75 years in business. “Recent market changes have rendered the business financially unviable, leading to the decision to cease operations,” according to an announcement.
The open-die forger and ring-rolling operation “will engage in an orderly ‘winddown’ of its business and conclude operations in 2018,” according to the statement. It has stopped quoting new orders, is working with current customers to complete work in progress or transition to alternative suppliers, and is making arrangements with creditors and suppliers to see they are paid in full “in the ordinary course of business.”
The company’s 110 employees will be laid off. Those workers are represented by the International Association of Machinists, and their current three-year contract is expiring this year.
According to Jorgensen Forge’s statement, it is working with Washington state and local workforce resources to transition its employees to new employment.
Jorgensen Forge produces open-die forgings and rolled rings in low-alloy and stainless grades of steel, aluminum alloys, titanium alloys, and nickel-based alloys. Production equipment includes four open-die presses and two ring-rolling mills. It also offers heat-treating and machining, and it has special capabilities for “marine shafting,” as well as full testing and inspection services. Its customers have been manufacturers supplying aerospace, energy, defense, and general industrial markets.
The seller is CE Star Holdings, a company formed in 2016 by secured note-holders of Constellation Enterprises LLC, which was the previous owner of Jorgensen. Constellation declared a Chapter 11 bankruptcy in order to liquidate other assets, notably Columbus Steel Castings, which has been closed.
CE Star Holdings paid $108 million for three former Constellation subsidiaries — Commercial Metal Forming, Zero Manufacturing, and Jorgensen Forge.
Local reports quoted a Jorgensen spokesman who noted that CE Star intends to sell the 22-acre Tukwila, WA, property to a real-estate developer.
