The Baltimore Brew and Baltimore Sun reported this evening the Maryland Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation (DLLR) has set up a dedicated phone line in order to handle the overflow of phone calls related to the layoffs at RG Steel Sparrows Point. According to the Baltimore Sun the company has submitted a list of 720 workers to be laid off of the more than 2,000 unionized workers at the Sparrows Point facility. The workers are reported to be laid off until at least March 4th.

The Baltimore Sun reported a state of Maryland DLLR official as saying the layoffs could total as many as 2,000 based on conversations they had with the union. The union has had no direct comments on the subject.

RG Steel has not publically announced the layoffs or issued a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) notices to the workforce according to the Brew article. Federal law requires employers to give a 60-day notice to employees and their union if there are to be layoffs during any 30 day period.

Steel Market Update spoke with a number of customers of RG Steel who have been in contact with their sales representatives during the course of the day. We learned from them the mill has approximately 15-16,000 tons of slabs behind the hot strip mill and other inventory by the cold mill and coating lines.

With only 720 of the 1,800 union workers affected by layoffs at this time it stands to reason there are pieces of equipment which will be finishing inventory which is behind the lines. This is the message customers are getting from their sales contacts.

We also heard there would be some form of public statement made by the company either through the press or somehow communicated to the customer base from the company. As of this evening our attempts to communicate with the RG Steel spokesperson have not netted any results. The company remains mute on the subject.