A Middletown steelmaker ranked highest in the category of corporate governance, according to Directorship magazine’s 2010 list of best governed companies, the company said Tuesday, June 1.

“We took on the challenge of identifying those spectacular companies whose leadership both in the market and the boardroom is worthy of emulation,” Directorship magazine said on its website. “We then listed them based on raw data and weighted them for various disparities in size, sector, and circumstance, including overall economic stress factors that have prevailed, board director qualifications, and a new factor, limited outside board memberships by the CEO.”

AK Steel Corp., with a Middletown steel plant, scored 50, or the highest possible, in the magazine’s corporate governance ranking.

“Being recognized for outstanding corporate governance speaks volumes about the leadership provided by AK Steel’s board of directors,” James Wainscott, AK’s chairman, president and chief executive, said in a statement from the company.

AK has about 6,200 workers in Middletown, Mansfield, Coshocton and Zanesville, Ohio and in other states.