US Steel announced Tuesday it will close three of its remaining 10 coke batteries at its Clairton plant later this month.
After closing the three batteries, which are the plant’s oldest, the company will reassign 130 workers affected by the closure; there will not be layoffs associated with the closure, US Steel said.
The battery closure was first announced in 2021, after US Steel reconsidered plans to expand and modernize operations in Pennsylvania. The company said the closure will lower emissions from the plant, which media reports said is “by far the largest source of particle pollution in Allegheny County, by 15 to 20 percent.”
In a statement, the company said the closures would improve local air quality and also “support the company’s ambitious climate goals.”
The company says the shutdown will take six days to complete, beginning March 27. The three batteries were capable of processing 1,553,805 tons of coal per year, according to its Allegheny County air quality permit.
Currently, Clairton is the largest coke plant in the US, producing about 4.7 million tons of coke per year.