Steel Products
Coronavirus Forces JSW USA to Idle Some Operations
Written by Tim Triplett
April 16, 2020
JSW Steel USA will idle facilities and lay off workers at its plants in Mingo Junction, Ohio, and Baytown, Texas, in an effort to mitigate the impact of the coronavirus pandemic and chaos in the oil and gas market on steel demand.
The company said it will temporarily idle the hot rolling mill and EAF at Mingo Junction in mid-April for approximately four weeks. Planned CAPEX projects related to EAF modernization and general maintenance will be completed.
The company will continue the hot rolling of plate at its Baytown Plate mill as it completes the cold commissioning of Phase-1 of the $260 million plate mill modernization project. Plate processing and shipping also will continue to assure that all customer deliveries are met on time.
The Baytown pipe mill will be put in “care and maintenance” mode from mid-May onwards to complete several maintenance projects so the mill can be restarted on short notice when the market improves, the company said.
Because of these temporary changes to operations at Mingo Junction and Baytown, JSW will temporarily lay off certain employees in April and May. The company has issued WARN Act notices to state and local officials. It expects to call back many of the laid off employees when operations are restarted in May and June.
“We remain committed to supporting all our employees and their families in this challenging environment, and we will continue to provide medical benefits until the end of the month to employees who are laid off during the month,” said JSW USA President and CEO John Hritz. “We believe that with the combination of the medical benefits that we will be providing and the additional unemployment benefits announced under the CARES Act of 2020, the employees who are laid off for a short time will be able to cushion the impact and support their families during this period.”
Added Hritz: “As we continue with our new Mingo Junction Electric Arc Furnace and new Baytown Plate Mill installations, we stand ready to ramp up our capacity utilization at each facility, based on customer demand.”
{loadposition reserved_message}
Tim Triplett
Read more from Tim TriplettLatest in Steel Products
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.
SMU Community Chat: Zekelman calls for more support for steel consumers
“Unless the administration actually gets serious about levelling the playing field… for consumers of steel, then everything they've done on the steel side is useless."