US Steel mulls to indefinitely idle significant portions of its Great Lakes Works operations near Detroit, Michigan. The iron and steelmaking facilities will be idled around April 1, 2020, and the hot strip mill rolling facility before the end of 2020.
Idling of these facilities is part of company’s effort to align its production with steel demand. The company plans to shift production of Great Lakes Work to its Gary Works in Indiana. Great Lakes Works has an annual raw steelmaking capability of approximately 3.8mn net tons (3.4mn mt).
US Steel is challenged by domestic steel producers using mini-mill technology, which converts ferrous scrap into steel at much lesser production cost compared to large integrated mills such as Great Lakes Works. US Steel has announced plans to combine integrated plant and mini-mills technology to improve efficiency.
Several operations that will continue at Great Lakes Works include the pickle line, cold mill, sheet temper mill, Continuous Galvanizing Line (CGL), annealing and warehouses. However, idling of the steelmaking plant will result in 1,500 layoffs.