FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                          AT
MONDAY, JUNE 17, 1996                              (202) 616-2771
                                               TDD (202) 514-1888

    PARK CORPORATION ABANDONS BID FOR JOHNSTOWN CORP. AFTER
   JUSTICE DEPARTMENT SAYS DEAL WOULD TRIGGER A COURT CHALLENGE
     WASHINGTON, D.C. -- In response to the prospect of an 

antitrust suit by the Department of Justice, Cleveland-based 

Park Corp.--the nation's largest producer of cast steel 

industrial equipment--abandoned its bid to buy Johnstown Corp. at 
a bankruptcy auction held today in Pittsburgh.  The Department 

told Park that it had serious anticompetitive concerns about the
proposed acquisition and would likely challenge the transaction
on antitrust grounds if the deal went forward.  
     The Department said that if Park was allowed to acquire
Johnstown Corp. it would control a monopoly share of the markets
for both cast steel work rolls and large slag pots, which could
result in increased prices for consumers.
     The antitrust section of the Pennsylvania Attorney General's
Office, which was jointly investigating the proposed acquisition
with the Department, had expressed similar competitive concerns
about the proposed purchase by Park and strongly recommended that
the Attorney General of Pennsylvania join in any Division suit.
     Park and Johnstown are the nation's two largest producers of 
cast steel work rolls and sleeves--heavy industrial equipment
used by steel mills to make "shaped" steel products such as
structural beams, wide diameter seamless pipe, and rails.  These
products have a wide variety of uses in the commercial
construction, oil and gas, and rail transportation industries.
   Anne K. Bingaman, Assistant Attorney General in charge of
the Department's Antitrust Division, said, "Cast steel work rolls
and sleeves are used to make products that are mainstays of the
nation's steel industry.  If this acquisition were permitted, the
merged firm could have raised prices to consumers who buy these
critical pieces of equipment.  I am pleased that we were able to
work closely with Attorney General Tom Corbett's antitrust staff
on this important matter."
     Park and Johnstown are also the two largest producers of
large slag pots, which are used in steel smelting operations to
remove molten waste from blast furnaces.
     Total U.S. sales of cast steel work rolls in 1995 were about
$33 million.  Total U.S. sales of large slag pots in 1995 were
approximately $10 million.
     If Park had acquired Johnstown, it would have controlled
more than 66 percent of all U.S. sales of cast steel work rolls
and sleeves, and more than 88 percent of production and sales of
large slag pots.
     Park produces cast steel work rolls and slag pots through
its WHEMCO Division.  In 1995, Park had total revenues of about
$2.2 billion.
      Johnstown, based in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, reported total
annual sales of about $43 million in 1995.
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