US Steel has decided to indefinitely idle the blast furnace at its Granite City mill in Illinois in order to balance capacity with its order book, according to local media reports. The decision will affect up to 1,000 workers.
The company will continue to meet demand from its customers with other active facilities and will keep rolling and finishing at the mill in question using slab directed from other plants, SteelOrbis understands.
As SteelOrbis reported previously, US Steel had temporarily idled blast furnace B at its Granite City mill and had laid off 400 employees due to the recent United Automobile Workers strike.
Granite City produces high-quality hot rolled, cold rolled and coated sheet steel products for customers in the construction, container, piping and tubing, service center and automotive industries, and it has a raw steel production capability of 2.5 million mt per year.