Steel Mills
US Steel Continues to Shrink its Workforce
Written by John Packard
September 17, 2015
Once one of the largest corporate giants in the United States (if not the world), United States Steel (USS) continues to shrink its workforce as demand for its products shrink. SMU has learned that an unknown number of white collar workers have been advised that they will be losing their jobs.
USS Spokesperson Courtney Boone advised Steel Market Update this afternoon, “We staff our organization based upon our operational and business needs. We have not commented on numbers but will say that these adjustments impacted salaried employees.”
US Steel, under the leadership of Mario Longhi, has been working for many months to reduce the company’s overhead. As part of a program nicknamed “The Carnegie Way” (after Andrew Carnegie who created Carnegie Steel Company which when sold to JP Morgan in 1901 became U.S. Steel) the company has been cutting costs in order to survive.
In Augus,t US Steel announced that it would close the hot end and most of the rolling operations (except for one coating line) at their Fairfield Works in Birmingham, Alabama. The move is expected to impact up to 1,100 workers.
With negotiations between US Steel and the United Steelworkers union (USW) having failed to come to an agreement on September 1, 2015, the company has been working under the terms of the old contract. With ArcelorMittal having walked away from the negotiating table, many in the industry expect that over time US Steel will as well. The company is pushing for concessions from workers who have not seen a strike or lockout since the mid 1980’s.
The company also put their Canadian operations into bankruptcy over a year ago (see Mediation article in tonight’s issue) and have closed or reduced operations at a number of their pipe and tube operations due to weakness in the energy sector.
John Packard
Read more from John PackardLatest in Steel Mills
CRU: Usiminas may reduce capex unless government strengthens protection
“The lack of effective measures to create fair competition, amid a surge in subsidized imports, is the main threat to the sustainability of Brazil’s steel industry and its value chain,” CEO Marcelo Chara said.
USS swings to loss in first quarter on N. American flat-rolled segment woes
U.S. Steel CEO praised the company’s resilience, “despite the seasonally low results driven by annual mining logistics constraints in our North American Flat-Rolled segment and lagging spot prices.”
Nucor gives updates on new capacity coming online
Nucor said several of its capital projects will start operations within the next year and provided an update on them.
Algoma swings to loss on ‘market challenges’ and ‘tariff uncertainties’
Canada’s Algoma Steel swung to a loss in the first quarter amid "market challenges," and the company now expects first steel production from its first EAF in the second quarter.
Ternium raises budget for Mexico project
The steelmaker now expects the new steel slab mill in Pesquería will begin operations by Q4’26.