[BartSimpson]

https://www.stltoday.com/business/local ... 3c45d.html

U.S. Steel to restart second furnace in Granite City, hire 300 employees

$1:

U.S. Steel Corp. says it will restart the second of two shuttered blast furnaces at its Granite City mill and hire 300 employees.

The decision by the Pittsburgh-based company follows a March announcement that it would restart the other blast furnace at the Granite City Works in the Metro East and recall 500 workers. U.S. Steel laid off hundreds of workers when it idled the furnaces in late 2015, with employment at the nearly 2,000 worker plant dipping as low as 100 in the ensuing two years.

The company says the restart of the first furnace is in progress and that the second furnace should be in operation around Oct. 1. After the two restarts are complete, about 1,500 people will work at the plant, U.S. Steel says.

“We are excited to announce that after the restart of the ‘A’ blast furnace on or around Oct. 1, all of the steelmaking operations at Granite City will be back on line, helping us meet an increased demand for American-made steel that has only grown since our March announcement,” U.S. Steel President and CEO David Burritt said in a statement. “After careful consideration of market conditions and customer demand ... the restart of the two blast furnaces at Granite City Works will allow us to serve our customers’ growing demand for high quality products melted and poured in the United States.”

The first newly made steel in over two years came out of the plant on Tuesday, said Tom Ryan, an official with United Steelworkers Local 1899. He said the plant is close to hiring the 500 people U.S. Steel said it would hire in March. Many of them are experienced workers who have been waiting for the plant to restart, but Ryan said some former employees moved on during the long outage.

“Everybody who was out there waiting for recall has been recalled,” he said. “We’re hiring off the street now and working diligently to do that.”

The plant never totally idled. From March 2017 to March 2018, between 700 and 800 workers were employed at the plant, according to Granite City Economic Development Director James Amos.

The blast furnace announcements follow President Donald Trump’s moves to impose tariffs on all imported steel and aluminum this year. The Commerce Department in 2016 had slapped duties on imported steel from some countries, including China, Italy and other Asian nations after complaints they were selling steel at below-market prices. Trump announced in February a 25 percent tariff on all imported steel.

Last week, Trump said that the U.S. allies of Canada, the European Union and Mexico would no longer be exempted from the tariffs, sparking anger from allies and prompting retaliatory tariffs on other American exports.


The Granite City Works restart also comes as oil prices have recovered to levels not seen since early 2015. The plant had been a big supplier of steel for pipes and tubes used in the domestic energy industry, which slowed sharply amid the precipitous drop in energy prices starting in mid-2014.

Ryan, the union official, said the drop in the oil industry business “is probably what put us down in 2015.”

“I’m sure the tariffs are helping,” he said. “I’m sure the oil is helping.”

[BartSimpson]

Hmmm...here's Donald Trump's policies directly benefiting UNION workers!!

[Jabberwalker]

Not much chance of US Steel re-starting the Stelco works in Hamilton.

Oh,I forgot. The US Steel mill in Hamilton is a strategic threat to the U.S. of A.

[BartSimpson]

Jabberwalker Jabberwalker:

Not much chance of US Steel re-starting the Stelco works in Hamilton.

Especially since it doesn't belong to them anymore.

[Jabberwalker]

BartSimpson BartSimpson:

Jabberwalker Jabberwalker:

Not much chance of US Steel re-starting the Stelco works in Hamilton.

Especially since it doesn't belong to them anymore.

Yeah, they made a deal with the Province to not shut it down in exchange with megadollars of kickbacks. They closed it anyway and stole the money, anyway.

Why don't we even do business with Americans?

There isn't an honest one in a truckload.

[BartSimpson]

I can only go off the info I can find about the issue:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stelco

$1:

In 2004, Stelco had financial difficulties and went under court-ordered protection from its creditors, including the Deutsche Bank. Stelco exited Companies' Creditors Arrangements Act (CCAA) protection on March 31, 2006.[8] It has divested itself of several non-core operations, including Stelwire, Norambar (formerly Stelco McMaster Works) and Welland Pipe. The CCAA exit has seen the remaining operations restructured into 9 separate operating businesses, held by the corporate entity of Stelco.

On August 27, 2007, U.S. Steel purchased Stelco for $1.9 billion – $1.1 billion in cash, and assuming $800 million in debt. The company was renamed Hamilton Works – US Steel Canada. The deal closed on October 31, 2007. The company was renamed U.S. Steel Canada Inc. and its shares were delisted from the Toronto Stock Exchange.

In an effort to streamline operations, U.S. Steel announced on March 3, 2009 that it would be temporarily shutting down its Hamilton plant and most of its Lake Erie plant putting more than 2,000 people out of work. This announcement came four months after U.S. Steel laid off 700 employees at the Hamilton plant when it shut down its blast furnace.[9]

Market conditions and declining customer orders prompted U.S. Steel to shut down the Hamilton Works on October 1, 2010.[10] 100 jobs were restored when the German Max Aicher steel company bought two steel mills from US Steel, and opened them as "Max Aicher North America".[11] More jobs are expected to be created when the mills are in full production.[11] The Hamilton steel-making and iron-making operations were permanently closed on December 31, 2013.[12]

On September 16, 2014, U.S. Steel Canada announced that it would apply for court protection from its creditors.[13] US Steel then stated that it intended to sell all of its remaining operations in Hamilton in the next two months.[14]

U.S. Steel Canada was severed from U.S. Steel Corporation in 2015 after it entered Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act protection in 2014.[15] In November 2016, a deal was struck to sell U.S. Steel Canada to Bedrock Industries.

On December 2, 2016, the company took the "Stelco" name again.[16] In 2017, an initial public offering raised $200 million for the company.[17]

Sounds to me like US Steel rescued the firm from bankruptcy, subsidized it for ten years, and then said fuck it and went home.

[rickc]

Jabberwalker Jabberwalker:

BartSimpson BartSimpson:

Jabberwalker Jabberwalker:

Not much chance of US Steel re-starting the Stelco works in Hamilton.

Especially since it doesn't belong to them anymore.

Yeah, they made a deal with the Province to not shut it down in exchange with megadollars of kickbacks. They closed it anyway and stole the money, anyway.

Why don't we even do business with Americans?

There isn't an honest one in a truckload.

Yeah because we all know that a Canadian company (like Bombardier) would never take the money and run, would they?

[Jabberwalker]

rickc rickc:

Jabberwalker Jabberwalker:

BartSimpson BartSimpson:

Especially since it doesn't belong to them anymore.

Yeah, they made a deal with the Province to not shut it down in exchange with megadollars of kickbacks. They closed it anyway and stole the money, anyway.

Why don't we even do business with Americans?

There isn't an honest one in a truckload.

Yeah because we all know that a Canadian company (like Bombardier) would never take the money and run, would they?

They copy heavily subsidized American aircraft makers like Boeing who receive orders for thousands more planes than the US military's requirements as a form of largesse. Whacky, megabillion dollar defence orders is how the US government subsidizes their industries ..especially their Tech sector.

Bombardier "ran" to where? From Cartierville all the way to Mirabel ...

[Thanos]

This will definitely balance out the more than 146,000 other American jobs that are expected to be lost due to the trade war over steel.

[martin14]

Thanos Thanos:

This will definitely balance out the more than 146,000 other American jobs that are expected to be lost due to the trade war over steel.

Given the current jobs growth in the US, that'll be covered in about 2 weeks.

[Thanos]

Yeah, 146,000 good paying jobs lost in the American metal industries and related manufacturing that are going to get hammered by the tariffs to be replaced by more low-wage no-benefits fast food jos. What a victory for MAGA.