Steel Mills
Tubular Operations Idled at US Steel and Republic Steel in Lorain
Written by Sandy Williams
March 7, 2016
US Steel’s Lorain Tubular steel operations will be idled beginning March 27. The plant is expected to remain down for an unspecified time period until order books improve.
US Steel spokesperson Sarah Casella said, “We continue to adjust operations at Lorain to meet customer demand.”
The sprawling steel complex in Lorain workers includes both US Steel and Republic Steel. Both have been hit hard by the downturn in the oil and gas industry.
Republic Steel’s Lorain plant has been running at 30 percent capacity after shutting down the EAF and casters in July. The remaining Lorain operations are expected to be idled by the end March, laying off about 200 workers.
United Steelworkers Local 1104 president Dennis Hamilton said union officials were informed of the Republic Steel layoffs last Thursday and do not know when the plant will resume operations
Republic President and CEO Jaime Vigil said in a memo to salaried employees, “Both mills have been operating at extremely low production levels due to the depressed energy and mining markets combined with unfairly traded imports, and there appears to be little prospect for the market to significantly improve in 2016.”
Sandy Williams
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