AL.com – by Kelly PoeUS Steel will lay off 2,080 workers in Illinois as part of the latest in a string of layoffs including more than 1,800 in Alabama.
The Pittsburgh-based steelmaker has announced it will temporarily idle its Granite City Works operations and the layoffs will start May 28.
US Steel sells steel pipes and tubes to oil and gas drillers. As oil prices have plummeted, the company has already made layoff announcements in Alabama,Minnesota and Texas, affecting more than 4,500 workers in total.
The Illinois plant is the primary flat-roll supplier of Lone Star Tubular Operations in Texas, where US Steel has already announced it would lay off 318 workers.
US Steel’s CEO Mario Longhi told investors in an earnings call in January the company would idle Alabama’s Fairfield blast furnace until orders picked up.
In Alabama, 300 jobs will be added at US Steel after it adds an electric arc furnace to replace its blast furnace. Last week, county commissioners unanimously approved about $14 million in tax abatements over the course of 10 years.
With the newly announced project, total employment at US Steel in Alabama will be around 600, instead of around 300.
The company cited challenging market conditions as the reason for Wednesday’s layoffs, including low steel prices, unfair trade, and fluctuating oil prices.
http://www.al.com/business/index.ssf/2015/03/us_steel_laying_off_2000_in_il.html
they made a shit load of steel at a higher price than the current market, and now they cant sell it.
so they will back off and wait until the need surpasses the glutton of steel on the ground and force the price back up to where they want it
in the mean time the little guy takes it up the azz,.. same as it ever was
people are going to suffer in this one, some could lose their homes , cars ..etc..a lot of them never saw it coming so they didnt get ready
these arnt the only steel mills messed up and backing down