US Steel announced Monday that it will idle its Granite City steel plant and temporarily lay off all 2,080 employees. The date of the closure has not been determined.
“We need to move orderly through the transitional idling process,” US Steel spokeswoman Courtney Boone told media. “It is based on market conditions and it would not be prudent for us to speculate the length of the idling.”
Employees were initially notified of a potential temporary closure in October.
“I think it’s really important to understand that this is truly related to a number of market conditions affecting the steel industry, where the oil and gas prices continue to stay low and Granite City Works serves those in that market,” Boone said. “In addition to that, there continues to be a glut of imported goods that challenge the overall industry. A number of those goods, we believe, are unfairly traded, and shows an un-level playing field with subsidized steel coming in from other countries. When you add each additional market condition, it makes for a challenging environment.”