Harsco Corporation

-- Issuer Default Rating (IDR) at 'A-';

-- Senior unsecured credit facilities at 'A-';

-- Senior unsecured debt at 'A-';

-- Short-term IDR at 'F2';

-- Commercial paper at 'F2'.

Harsco Finance B.V.

-- IDR at 'A-';

-- Senior unsecured debt at 'A-'.

The ratings affect approximately $1 billion of outstanding debt. The Rating Outlook is Stable.

The ratings incorporate Harsco's global diversification, well-established business portfolio, and conservative financial policies. The company has been able to generate free cash flow despite the sharp downturn experienced by its infrastructure and metals businesses, reflecting the company's flexibility with respect to capital expenditures.

Harsco's sales and margins weakened materially beginning in the fourth quarter of 2008 and leverage increased to a level that is somewhat weak for the ratings. At June 30, 2009, debt/EBITDA was 1.6 times (x) and operating EBITDA to gross interest expense was 9.0x. Concerns about Harsco's results are partly offset by recent stabilization in some of its markets and by Fitch's expectation that the company should realize a slow improvement in its operating performance as restructuring efforts take effect. In addition, Fitch expects that Harsco will use free cash flow to reduce debt during late 2009 and possibly in 2010 to control leverage. In the event that economic conditions are worse than expected, or if Harsco's free cash flow and debt reduction are insufficient to keep leverage near or only slightly above expected year-end levels, the ratings or Outlook could be reviewed toward the downside.

Harsco's operating results should benefit over the near term from a slight recovery in steel production in the latter half of 2009 and additional growth in demand in 2010. Harsco's Metals segment results weakened as historically low global production of steel negatively influenced both sales and margins that were also affected by certain low margin contracts. Estimated production growth between 5%-10% in the second half of 2009 will be due in part to customers increasing inventory after a period of extreme destocking. Additional growth in 2010 is based upon increased production and new business in emerging markets, but overall global production will remain well below recent historical averages.