U.S. Steel idles Granite City blast furnace

2023-10-02

Oct. 2, 2023 - U.S. Steel announced last week that it would temporarily idle its last operating blast furnace at the Granite City Works plant here, blaming the United Auto Workers strike for the decision, while at the time of the announcement the auto workers had only been on strike for a few days. U.S. Steel said temporary layoffs will begin in phases as equipment is idled.

"Following the announcement of UAW strike actions, we are executing our risk mitigation plan to ensure our melt capacity is balanced with our order book. As a result, we have decided to temporarily idle blast furnace ‘B’ at Granite City Works and are reallocating volumes as needed to other domestic facilities to efficiently meet customer demand. We thank our employees for working to ensure the temporary idling of the furnace will be conducted safely and efficiently. We do not take these decisions lightly and will continue to monitor and assess market conditions. It would not be prudent to speculate as to how long we expect the idling to last, but we currently believe that layoffs will last less than 6 months."

Blast furnace B is the only remaining blast furnace operating at the Granite City steel mill, which has been under pressure for more than a year after the company suggested selling off part of the mill. U.S. Steel announced plans to sell two blast furnaces to SunCoke Energy Inc. last year, saying SunCoke would alter the furnaces to produce pig iron, a crude material for making steel. U.S. Steel would still supply raw materials and then buy back 100 percent of the product, but SunCoke’s production would use only about one-third of the of  the plant’s 1,460-person workforce.

U.S. Steel recently declined a billion-dollar buyout offer from a rival company.