Property, Plant and Equipment

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2021

Property, Plant and Equipment [Abstract]

Property, plant and equipment consist of the following:


(In thousands)	Estimated Useful Lives	December 31 2021		December 31 2020
Land	—	$	73,067	$	73,237
Land improvements	5-20 years	16,970		17,500
Buildings and improvements (a)	5-30 years	221,236		224,909
Machinery and equipment (b)	3-20 years	1,507,214		1,512,966
Uncompleted construction	—	63,816		39,587
Gross property, plant and equipment		1,882,303		1,868,199
Less: Accumulated depreciation		(1,228,390)		(1,237,845)
Property, plant and equipment, net		$	653,913	$	630,354

(a) Buildings and improvements include leasehold improvements that are amortized over the shorter of their useful lives or the initial term of the lease.

(b) Includes information technology hardware and software.

In the third quarter of 2020, a customer of the Harsco Environmental Segment in China ceased steel making operations at its steel mill site in order to relocate the operations to a new site, as a result of a government mandate to improve environmental conditions of the area. The Company will continue to provide services to the same customer at the new site. The net book value of the idled equipment associated with the previous location is approximately $20 million. The customer has entered into an agreement with the government where it will receive compensation for the losses the customer has incurred as a result of the forced shutdown. The Company has continued discussions with the customer regarding compensation, which are expected to be protracted. While the customer has initially indicated that they will not provide compensation, the Company and the customer continue to discuss and the Company is evaluating its legal position. In addition, there may be other avenues of pursuing recovery, including seeking relief directly from the local government. At this point, considering the ongoing discussions with the customer, and other avenues, the Company believes it will recover the book value of the equipment and thus does not believe it has an asset impairment as of December 31, 2021. However, the Company will continue to evaluate changes in facts and circumstances and record any impairment charge when and if indicated.