United States Steel Corporation announced Monday that it will indefinitely idle two tubular manufacturing facilities in McKeesport, Pennsylvania, and Bellville, Texas, in early August, impacting approximately 260 employees as a result of business conditions which are influenced by unfairly traded tubular products imported into the United States.
The indefinite idling of these loss-making operations will reduce the number of US Steel’s tubular facilities from 10 to eight, but will enable the company to operate more profitably as it repositions to meet future customer demand. Approximately 45 professional and management employees and 215 represented employees were advised today of the upcoming idling and resulting job reductions and are being issued notices under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act.
US Steel President and CEO Mario Longhi stated, “US Steel remains fully committed to the tubular products business and to serving our tubular customers. While these are difficult decisions, they are necessary in order to return our company to sustainable profitability and position us for future growth. We will continue to fight unfair trade by foreign competitors who are creating a detrimental impact and threat to middle-class paying manufacturing jobs.”
US Steel, along with other domestic producers, has filed an anti-dumping action with the US Department of Commerce to halt the unfair trading and dumping of foreign Oil Country Tubular Goods (OCTG) into the American market.
US Steel will continue to produce and finish tubular products at its facilities in Alabama, Arkansas, Ohio and Texas where it employs approximately 2,900 employees.