HUNTINGTON — Steel of West Virginia is laying off 13 workers effective Monday, bringing the total number of laid off workers to 65 in less than a month.

Steel of West Virginia President Tim Duke said the layoffs were the result of extended holiday shutdowns notices they received from their customers. Since customers will be purchasing less during the holidays, Duke said they needed to lay off 13 workers to matched the decreased production.

Earlier reports of 72 layoffs were incorrect.

Duke blamed the downturn of the economy for the most recent round of layoffs.

“When our customers are not selling certain types of machinery, they’re not going to need steel,” Duke said. “After the holidays we’ll re-evaluate our order books to see if (the orders) come back.”

The company, located along Ohio River in Huntington, takes scrap steel and makes more than 300,000 tons of products a year, he told The Herald-Dispatch earlier this year. "We ship 7 percent internationally," he said at the time.

In November, Duke said some customers were making smaller orders and keeping lower inventory. He said he  the company weathering the sluggish economy, though it has to make adjustments. Business started to slow down rather suddenly since the summer, he said.

Duke said he hopes they can re-hire some workers if the economy and steel business gets stronger.

“This is uncharted territory for us,” Duke said.

Having already lost some workers to attrition this fall, Duke estimated they’ve lost about 100 workers in the past few months.

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