Steel Mills

USS idles iron, steelmaking 'indefinitely' at Granite City Works

Written by Ethan Bernard

November 28, 2023

U.S. Steel said it has indefinitely idled steelmaking at its Granite City Works in southern Illinois near St. Louis.

“U.S. Steel has indefinitely idled Granite City’s primary operations and will meet customer demand by leveraging the company’s active iron and steelmaking facilities,” a spokeswoman for U.S. Steel said in a statement to SMU on Tuesday.

“This action was taken in order to help ensure melt capacity is balanced with our order book,” she added.

The spokeswoman noted that the company “has sent the required notices to employees who potentially may be affected.”

U.S. Steel issued ~1,000 workers a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act notice that they might be laid off. The company added that it expected ~60% of those would likely lose their jobs, according to a report from St. Louis NBC affiliate KSDK.

“We thank our employees for their contributions and will keep them informed throughout this process,” the spokeswoman said.

Recall that in early October, U.S. Steel had announced layoffs of ~300 workers at Granite City. This came after the idling of blast furnace ‘B’ in mid-September.

U.S. Steel said at the time that the idling was in response to the United Auto Workers (UAW) union strike. The UAW strike officially concluded with ratification votes in favor of a new labor contract earlier this month.

The ‘A’ furnace was indefinitely idled in April 2020, according to SMU’s blast furnace status table.

Ethan Bernard

Ethan Bernard is managing editor for Steel Market Update. He previously worked for American Metal Market as a copy editor in the New York office for two years, starting in 2008. Later, he copy edited AMM’s monthly magazine on a freelance basis from 2015 until 2017. With experience in financial copywriting and textbook publishing, he holds a BA in Comparative Literature from UC Berkeley, and an MFA. in Creative Writing from New York University. He can be reached at ethan@steelmarketupdate.com or 724-759-7871.

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