Market Segment
March 27, 2026
U.S. Steel on schedule for Q2 restart of Granite City blast furnace
Written by Laura Miller
U.S. Steel confirmed it is in the process of restarting one of two blast furnaces at its Granite City Works near St. Louis. Local media reports suggest iron- and steelmaking will resume as soon as this weekend.
The steelmaker announced in December it would restart the B furnace in Granite City, Ill. Parent company Nippon Steel later said the restart would occur in the second quarter of this year.
With Q2 approaching next week, it would appear the company is right on schedule.
The president of the United Steelworkers Local 1899, Craig McKey, told St. Louis Public Radio that steelmaking would resume this weekend. The local represents union members in Granite City, outside St. Louis, including at U.S. Steel’s steelworks there.
SMU was unable to reach McKey and did not receive official confirmation from the USW.
Mid-day on Friday, a spokesperson for U.S. Steel told SMU the company “is in the process of restarting Blast Furnace B” and that it would “provide an update when steelmaking has commenced.”
“We remain focused on safety and environmental compliance as we complete this process,” the spokesperson added.
Comments by steelworkers on social media confirmed McKey’s comments that Granite City was preparing to fire up its iron- and steelmaking operations this weekend.
When it announced the furnace restart in December, the company cited customer demand and the “ordinary course of business planning.”
Recall, too, that U.S. Steel is planning to idle the No. 14 blast furnace at the company’s Gary Works outside Chicago from May to August for a furnace reline.
The No. 14 Gary BF has a daily ironmaking capacity of 7,450 short tons. The Granite City B Furnace is smaller with a daily capacity of 3,600 st.
