Steel Mills

California Legislators Urge U.S. Steel to Find a Buyer for UPI Mill

Written by Laura Miller

November 14, 2023

A group of California members of Congress is calling on U.S. Steel to keep its USS-UPI steel mill in Pittsburg, Calif., open by finding a buyer for the operations.

The steelmaker informed key stakeholders in 2022 of its plans to close the mill at the end of this year. It reiterated its plans for the mill’s closure in filings with the Securities & Exchange Commission at the end of October. WARN notices were filed with the state at the end of September.

On Nov. 9, Representatives John Garamendi (D-CA08), Mark DeSaulnier (D-CA10), Barbara Lee (D-CA12), and Katie Porter (D-CA47) sent a letter to U.S. Steel’s president and CEO David Burritt, urging him to find a buyer for the mill.

“We believe there are potentially interested parties willing to purchase and keep the steel mill in production,” the legislators wrote to Burritt.

They added that an acquisition would also benefit two other production facilities near the mill: CEMCO, which produces steel framing, and Roll Technology West, which makes chrome plate.

The letter explains that keeping the mill open would be beneficial to the local economy and would allow hundreds of workers to keep their jobs.

“It would also benefit numerous interdependent industries across California and the entire supply chain for domestic tin and other steel products, which are used throughout the state for food packaging and other critical products,” the letter said.

Rep. Garamendi pointed out in a statement sent to SMU that the UPI mill has been in operation for more than 100 years and is the city of Pittsburg’s third-largest employer.

The USS-UPI mill’s annual capacity was 1.5 million tons of cold-rolled and galvanized steel sheet and tin mill products made from hot-rolled substrate principally provided by U.S. Steel.

Pittsburgh-based U.S. Steel had no comment on the letter from the Congressional delegation.

SMU has been hearing rumors for some time that the USS-UPI mill was in a state of disrepair, and mill equipment was reportedly already up for sale.

Laura Miller

Laura Miller is a reporter and editor for Steel Market Update. Since 2007, she has held various editorial and marketing positions with steel industry publications, associations, and mills. In 2021, after a five-year hiatus working across other industries, she returned to steel trade journalism, joining SMU in 2022. She is a member of the Association of Women in the Metal Industries and a past-president of the AWMI Pittsburgh Chapter. She holds a BA in Latin American Studies from Edinboro University of Pennsylvania. She can be reached at laura@steelmarketupdate.com or 724-759-7869.

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