Steel Mills

No Layoff of Workers at USS-POSCO
Written by Sandy Williams
January 3, 2014
USS-POSCO (UPI) in Pittsburg, California, filed a layoff warning with the California Economic Development Department (CED) that created concern that 690 employees would be laid off effective January 14, 2014.
USS-POSCO says media reports of a layoff were in error. A spokesperson for USS-POSCO said the company has “no imminent plans to lay off any employees at present,” despite the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) filed with the CED. According to the spokesman, as quoted in an AMM article, UPI issues a warning periodically due to the “general uncertainty” of the steel industry. The company’s employees are sent a copy of the WARN notice as more of a “renewal to keep employees up to date.”
Steel Market Update spoke to one of UPI’s customers over the weekend who advised us that the mill would not be going down anytime soon. This executive told us,“UPI will always be in business. In what configuration is yet to be seen. UPI is the only Tin Mill Products producer in the western region with Tin Mill Products capacity upwards of 600,000 tons per year of. The PLTCM was designed specifically to produce the thin gauge FHCB needed to feed the Tin Mill. With the western US and especially California being a very large producer of canned produce/products, UPI will continue to produce Tin Mill products. Whether the ownership of UPI stays intact, or new partnerships are formed to take this mill forward will become evident over this coming year.”
USS-POSCO is a joint venture between US Steel and Korean steelmaker POSCO. The company manufactures cold rolled, HRPO (hot rolled pickled & oiled), galvanized, Advanced High Strength Steels (AHSS), and tin mill products. USS-POSCO has sales exceeding $1 billion annually.

Sandy Williams
Read more from Sandy WilliamsLatest in Steel Mills

USW seeks clarity on plans for Granite City Works
The United Steelworkers union has asked U.S. Steel to elaborate on its Granite City Works plans following reports that the steelmaker is ending processing at the facility.

Nucor maintains plate prices, opens October order book
Nucor aims to keep plate prices flat for a seventh straight month with the opening of its October order book.

ArcelorMittal Mexico to import from sister mills as it works to resume DRI production
ArcelorMittal has partially restarted operations at its direct reduction plant in Lazaro Cardenas, Michoacan. An explosion on Aug. 18 rocked the massive steelworks on Mexico’s Pacific coast, impacting production of direct-reduced iron (DRI).

Fall maintenance outages are coming in hot
Labor Day has passed, the sun is starting to set a little earlier each day, and cooler weather has begun to find its way down to many of us across North America. And you know what that means for the steel industry… Fall maintenance outages!

AISI: Domestic steel production ticks up
US raw steel production ticked up in the week ending on Sept. 6 after a decrease the week before, according to the most recent data from the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI).