US Steel (USS) is closing down its Lone Star Tubular plant for good, putting 600 employees out of work as the COVID-19 crisis caused business to decline precipitously.
Previously announced as indefinite idlings of Lone Star’s Nos. 1 and 2 weld mills and its heat-treat and finishing operations, plans have been pushed ahead of schedule following an additional review of demand, according to a company spokesperson.
USS is also indefinitely shutting down the plant’s No. 2 heat treat line, finishing line No. 2, its pipe main finishing line and related supporting departments, signifying that the entire facility will be idled.
The company’s Wheeling Machine Products plant in Hughes Springs, Texas, is also closing indeterminately, with about 50 workers losing their jobs.
USS’s in Fairfield Tubular Operations, Offshore Operations Houston, and Wheeling Machine Products in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, will operate at levels commensurate with demand and make additional adjustments as needed, said the USS spokesperson.
The steelmaker’s seamless mill at Lorain Tubular perations in Lorain, Ohio, is nearly closed, as was first announced in March.
Worker adjustment and retraining notification notices have been issued to about 1,300 employees at Lone Star Tubular, Wheeling Machine in Hughes Springs, and Fairfield Tubular.
USS purchased the defunct Lone Star Steel in 2007, employing about 1,400 workers, according to reports.