Steel Products
U.S. Steel Idles Gary Works BF #8
Written by Sandy Williams
April 13, 2020
U.S. Steel will idle furnace #8 at Gary Works due to low market demand. The furnace was restarted in late 2019 to supplement production during a scheduled maintenance outage for the #4 furnace in 2020.
The #8 furnace has been banked in order to quickly restore production should market conditions improve.
“We are not in a position to speculate about the length of the idling,” said U.S. Steel spokeswoman Meghan Cox. “There are no immediate impacts to employees, but we will continue to evaluate in line with future conditions.”
In March, U.S. Steel idled BF #4 at Gary Works and the BF A at Granite City Works. The blast furnace idles were part of aggressive actions taken by U.S. Steel to mitigate the impacts from the coronavirus and weak market conditions. Actions included delays to certain projects, idling of iron and steelmaking at Great Lakes Works, and the idling of tubular operations at Lone Star Tubular and Lorain.
According to steel analyst Philip Gibbs of KeyBank, U.S. Steel will have approximately 50 percent of their 17 million tons of flat rolled steel capacity idled with the banking of the #8 furnace at Gary Works.
Sandy Williams
Read more from Sandy WilliamsLatest in Steel Products
Northwest Pipe changes name to NWPX Infrastructure
Northwest Pipe changes name to NWPX Infrastructure.
Tariffs, ample domestic supply cause importers to shift or cancel HR import orders
Subdued demand is causing importers to cancel hot-rolled (HR) coil orders and renegotiate the terms of shipments currently enroute to the US, importers say. An executive for a large overseas mill said customers might find it difficult to justify making imports buys after US President Donald Trump doubled the 25% Section 232 tariff on imported steel […]
Drilling activity slows in the US, grows in Canada
Oil and gas drilling activity was mixed this week, according to Baker Hughes. US totals slipped for a sixth straight week, while Canada saw a slight bump in activity.
Commerce finds no Korean OCTG shipments below market value
US Department of Commerce (Commerce) review found no South Korean oil country tubular goods (OCTG) exporters or producers sold products below market value
Drilling activity slows further in US and Canada
Oil and gas drilling activity declined again this week in both the US and Canada, according to Baker Hughes.