According to media reports, US Steel will halt processing steel slabs at its Granite City Works facility in Illinois likely in November. The company will move slab processing to Gary Works in Indiana and continue slab operations at the Mon Valley Works in Pittsburgh. Granite City Works has an annual raw steelmaking capability of 2.8 million net tons.
The company is reported to retain about 800 employees to keep the equipment operating until 2027. This is due to a deal US Steel agreed to with US President Trump to allow its purchase by Nippon Steel which included several job protections and production guarantees. The government and the United Steelworkers union did not comment on the closure plans.
In addition, evaluating options for its metallics strategy, the company is said to be not no closer to finalizing its 2022-announced deal with SunCoke Energy, which involves selling the blast furnaces to be converted into granulators for melting scrap iron to supply other electric arc furnaces.