(File Photo: Source for Photo: FILE – A giant ladle glows red after pouring molten iron in to a vessel inside the basic oxygen furnace as part of the processes of making steel at the U.S. Steel Granite City Works facility Thursday, June 28, 2018, in Granite City, Ill. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson, File)
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — U.S. Steel said it will resume making steel slabs at its Granite City Works plant in Illinois as demand rebounds.
The company shut down the last blast furnace there in 2023, and it even moved to wind down its steel processing mill there in September.
However, it reversed its stance on the processing mill, under pressure from the White House, and now says it is going a step further by resuming steel making by reopening the blast furnace it idled three years ago amid strikes by the United Auto Workers.
U.S. Steel on Thursday cited “customer demand” in beginning the process of restarting a blast furnace at the plant in Southern Illinois, just across the Mississippi River from St. Louis.
“After several months of carefully analyzing customer demand, we made the decision to restart a blast furnace,” CEO David Burritt said a statement. “Steel remains a highly competitive and highly cyclical industry, but we are confident in our ability to safely and profitably operate the mill to meet 2026 demand.”
The Pittsburgh company expects to resume steel production in the first half of next year after it hires and trains workers and gets equipment in safe working order. It will need to hire 400 of the 500 workers necessary to operate the plant, the company said.
The American Iron and Steel Institute reported that domestic steel mills in October shipped 7.7 million net tons, a 9% percent increase over the same month a year ago. Year-to-date shipments through October were up 5% over the same period in 2024, it said.
Analysts say a robust U.S. steel market has been strengthened in recent years due to tariffs under President Donald Trump and former President Joe Biden.
The decision by U.S. Steel, comes less than six months after Japan-based Nippon Steel sealed a deal with Trump to buy the iconic American steelmaker for $14.9 billion.
To resolve national security objections to the acquisition, Nippon Steel agreed to give the federal government a say in certain company decisions involving domestic steel production, including over closing or idling U.S. Steel’s plants.
It also pledged to invest some $14 billion in steel production in the U.S., including building a new electric furnace.
Under the national security agreement, protections expire in 2027 for Granite City Works, but last until 2035 for U.S. Steel’s other facilities.
Granite City Works makes rolls of sheet steel for the construction, container, pipe and automotive industries.
