ArcelorMittal USA announced Monday it will restart a blast furnace at its Indiana Harbor East Chicago mill, while the company repairs a blast furnace that was damaged in an explosion at its Burns Harbor plant.
The company idled the #4 blast furnace in May during the Covid-19 shutdown.
However, local news also reported over the weekend that the company will be laying off 877 workers at the East Chicago plant, effective Saturday, Aug. 1. Most of the layoffs are being labeled as “indefinite layoffs,” but the company said it expects the layoffs will last longer than six months.
According to local news reports, the company said the layoffs are a result of decreased demand for steel during the COVID-19 pandemic, and it does not anticipate improvement in demand “in the near term.”