Dive Brief:
- U.S. Steel will soon move production from its Granite City, Illinois, mill to other locations, but has no plans to idle the plant nor lay off its 800 workers, the company said in an email Sept. 9.
- The Nippon Steel subsidiary said it will “optimize” its operational footprint by focusing on processing and producing steel slabs at its Mon Valley Works and Gary Works facilities near Pittsburgh and Gary, Indiana. It will also reduce slab consumption at Granite City Works as part of the changes, the company added.
- The Granite City Works employees will likely keep their jobs through 2027 as a condition of the Trump administration’s national security agreement with U.S. Steel and Nippon Steel, AP News reported. The mill will be “maintained in an operational state” by its employees in case the situation changes, U.S. Steel said.
Dive Insight:
Three months ago, President Donald Trump signed an executive order approving U.S. Steel to be acquired by Japan-based Nippon Steel. As part of the approval, the companies agreed to sign a national security agreement that promised $11 billion in new investments by 2028. The deal would also retain and create 100,000 jobs, according to a study by Parker Strategy Group commissioned by U.S. Steel.
In an email Tuesday, the company said the decision to reduce slab production at Granite City Works allows it to avoid challenging product mixes at each facility and extensive cost inefficiencies. U.S. Steel said employees will maintain the mill and run auxiliary facilities with no changes to pay rates.
U.S. Steel’s Granite City Works mill has the capacity to produce 2.8 million tons of raw steel per year into hot-rolled, cold-rolled and coated sheets, according to the company’s 2024 annual report. The company indefinitely idled the location’s steel and ironmaking production facilities in November 2023, following a labor union worker strike targeting Detroit’s Big 3 automakers. It laid off more than 1,000 workers at Granite City Works at the time.
Today, Granite City Works continues to process slabs into sheets for the construction, piping and tubing, container and automotive industries. However, U.S. Steel’s decision to focus slab production at other locations has raised questions and concerns around the future of the mill and its workers.
Rep. Nikki Budzinski, D-Ill., criticized the decision on social media, calling out Trump for “turning his back” on Granite City’s mill workers. He has “put the very jobs he claimed to be saving on the chopping block,” Budzinkski wrote.
United Steel Workers District 7 Director Mike Millsap said in an emailed statement that U.S. Steel notified his staff “that it would stop supplying slabs to the facility at the end of October,” but no layoffs are planned at this time. The local union recently submitted a formal information request, but has yet to receive anything in writing about the company’s plans for Granite City Works.
“As we continue to push U.S. Steel for details on how this impacts our members, we intend to hold Nippon accountable to the promises it made over the past year and a half to secure its deal,” Millsap said.
