U.S. Steel Corp. on Thursday joined other steelmakers in cutting back production, saying it will lay off 500 steelworkers in the United States, including 78 in the Mon Valley, because of the drop in demand.
"The dramatic downturn in the economy has negatively affected our overall business, and we have adjusted production across all of our operations," U.S. Steel said in a statement. "It is necessary to control our costs and maintain our competitiveness ... until customer demand strengthens."
U.S. Steel, the nation's largest steelmaker with almost 50,000 employees worldwide, said local layoffs will occur at the Edgar Thomson plant, a steelmaking mill in Braddock, and the Irvin plant, a finishing mill in West Mifflin. The company employs about 1,650 of its 49,000 employees at those two steel mills, spokesman John Armstrong said.
Chuck Jackson, president of USW Local 1219, which represents workers at the Edgar Thomson plant, and Joseph Ballas, president of USW Local 2227, at the Irvin plant, could not be reached for comment.
The layoffs, which affect production workers, will begin with this weekend's schedule and continue indefinitely until demand returns, Armstrong said.
The layoffs will affect workers at U.S. Steel's mills in northwest Indiana, where U.S. Steel has a huge plant in Gary; Fairfield, Ala.; Ecorse and River Rouge, Mich.; and Granite City, Ill. In addition, the company said it will lay off 167 workers at its Hamilton and Erie plants in Ontario, Canada.
Workers at the company's coke-producing plant in Clairton have been spared in this round of layoffs, said Andrew Miklos, president of the USW Local 1557. Miklos said U.S. Steel is lengthening the time it takes to bake the coal into coke for use in steelmaking and is stockpiling inventory.
The drop in demand for steel has affected the company's flat-rolled steel business, which serves the automobile, appliance and construction industries, Armstrong said. He would not say how much production will be cut. Those three sectors accounted for 4.6 million tons of the company's 14.5 million tons of flat-rolled steel shipped last year.
Steel industry analyst Charles Bradford of Bradford/Soleil in New York wasn't surprised by the news, especially because of the downturn in the auto industry.
"It seems like very little (compared to) what they need to do," Bradford said, pointing out that ArcelorMittal recently cut back production by 35 percent.
AK Steel Corp., which has a plant in Butler, said this week it is idling two mills in Kentucky and Ohio and laying off hundreds of workers until next year because of the drop in demand. Ohio-based AK Steel also produces flat-rolled steel used for autos and household appliances.
"In general, steel demand is nonexistent at this moment," Bradford said.
No comments:
Post a Comment