Search Back Issues

Dec. 21, 2016 U.S. Steel to Restart Slab Production at Granite City U.S. Steel will once again process slabs on its hot-strip mill at Granite City Works in Illinois. Production at the idled mill is expected to resume in mid-February. U.S. Steel will source the slabs from its other domestic facilities. U.S. Steel also announced plans to take periodic maintenance outages at Gary Works in Indiana, Great Lakes Works in Michigan and Mon Valley Works in Pennsylvania to improve the reliability of its hot-strip mills and increase the pace of asset revitalization. The Granite City Works blast furnaces and steelmaking facilities were idled in December 2015 and the hot-strip mill was idled in January 2016 in response to challenging global market conditions. The blast furnaces and steelmaking facilities will remain idled. The pickle line, cold mill and finishing lines at Granite City Works will continue to operate, the company said. In other news, U.S. Steel has informed union employees at its Lorain, Ohio, and Lone Star Tubular facilities that it may permanently close two of its mills. The company is considering closing the Lorain Tubular No. 4 seamless mill, which was idled in April 2015, and the No. 1 Electric-Weld pipe mill at Lone Star, which was temporarily shut down in March. The company’s letter to employees does not mean the mills will close, but the company is exploring the option. The Lorain decision follows the layoff of 33 employees at the mill earlier in the month.