Severstal officials continue to spread the word that the steelmaker is in the Ohio Valley for the long haul, but it's got to weather the faltering economy for now.

Officials of the company met with representatives of local economic development and government in private sessions Friday, outlining the company's status and future plans.

Jefferson County Commissioner Tom Graham said after a 90-minute meeting in the Jefferson County Chamber of Commerce board room, "I don't want to offer false hope, but for the first time, I feel there is hope."

Officials emphasized that the plants in the area in the future won't be the same as they were before the downturn, but the steelmaker will continue locally.

Severstal bought the former Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel Corp. when it purchased Esmark Inc. last August. A planned outage of the blast furnace and basic oxygen furnace for refurbishing took place through September, but the furnaces were not restarted because of the economic downturn that accelerated last fall.

The company has been reducing operations at all of its plants in the United States and at its home plant in Cherepovets, Russia, because of the economy. The former Wheeling-Pitt plants have been fully idled, except for the coke plant in Follansbee, with a layoff of about 1,100 workers.

Wilbur Winland, general manager for Severstal Wheeling, said Friday the coke plant continues to operate at 40 percent capacity.

"All of the assets are being preserved. We've hot idled the old block" of coke ovens, Winland said, indicating the plant is being preserved and maintained for an eventual return to fuller production.