Steel Mills
US Steel Idles Granite City Works
Written by Sandy Williams
November 24, 2015
US Steel announced on Monday that it will follow through on its plans to temporarily idle the Granite City Works steelmaking and finishing operations located in Granite City, Ill.
In a press release today, the company said the idling is “part of an on-going adjustment of steelmaking operations throughout North America to match customer demand.”
“The company routinely adjusts production at its operating facilities to reflect market fluctuations. This is a result of continued challenging global market conditions including fluctuating oil prices, reduced rig counts and associated inventory overhang, depressed steel prices and unfairly traded imports, which continue to have a significant impact on the business.”
A US Steel spokesperson said the layoffs will affect approximately 2000 employees and the duration of the idling is not known at this time. Granite City Works employees were issued notices under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act on Oct. 8 in anticipation of a possible production adjustment.
The Granite City plant has two blast furnaces, one of which has been down as they have been replacing the caster with one taken from the Sparrows Point facility. The furnaces are rated at 2.4 million tons per year of pig iron. The mill also has two BOP (basic oxygen process) vessels capable of producing approximately 3.0 million tons of steel. Prior to the new caster being added the mill was able to cast 2.8 million tons of slabs.
Granite City Works has an 80″ hot strip mill, pickling line and a 56″ 4-stand cold mill plus two smaller galvanizing lines.
Steelmaking operations will continue in Indiana, Michigan and Pennsylvania as well some finishing operations in Alabama.
Sandy Williams
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