Large and Small Steel Mills Take a Thump as Layoffs Mount

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Reports are rolling in from across the nation as plant after plant lays off employees to help weather an economic slowdown that has affected numerous plants within the steel industry.

• ArcelorMittal USA, a subsidiary of ArcelorMittal (NYSE:MT) (Luxembourg), and its Burns Harbor, Indiana, steel workers are being asked to sign up for voluntary layoffs, while the company reduces production across the board. Employees are being promised that the layoffs are only a temporary measure. Burns Harbor has two blast furnaces and produces 4.7 million tons per year. The plant produces hot-rolled, cold-rolled and coated sheet products used in the automotive industry. The plate products also help to fill the demand for construction, rail cars, storage tanks and pipelines.



• AK Steel Holding Corporation (NYSE:AKS) (West Chester, Ohio) is calling for a reduction of its work force in Mansfield Works, Ohio, and it's expected to impact as many as 400 employees. The plant's normal production rate is 750,000 tons per year. Workers are expected to be idled from mid-November to early January. The Middletown, Ohio, steel mill, which produces 2.7 million tons per year, is not expected to see any job cuts.



• U.S. Steel Corporation (NYSE:X) (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) announced that it is not expecting any layoffs to take place at this time at the 2.6 million-ton-per-year Granite City, Illinois, plant despite the circulating rumors. U.S. Steel recently released its third-quarter net income, reporting a high of $919 million and up from the second-quarter income of $668 million.



• SeverStal Wheeling Incorporated (Wheeling, West Virginia), a division of SeverStal North America (Dearborn, Michigan), which in turn is a subsidiary of SeverStal OAO (MCX:CHMF) (Cherepovets, Russia), is expected to lay off 800 employees at the Steubenville Mingo Junction South Mill and Steubenville North Mill that share a capacity of 3.2 million tons per year. In a formal statement, the company said that the layoffs are not due to a SeverStal issue but a global issue. The company's coke plant in Follansbee, West Virginia, is not expected to be affected.



• SeverStal's 1.4 million-ton-per-year Warren, Ohio, steel mill will perform planned maintenance and is closing areas of the plant to accommodate the work. The project includes relining vessels, and repairs on the blast furnace, the continuous caster and the basic oxygen furnace, as well as the galvanizing line. The areas are expected to be shut down at different times through the end of November. Once more, there has been speculation that this plant would lay off employees. Instead, the company plans to use the employees to do much of the maintenance work and also use the time to attend training classes, thus avoiding using all outside contractors and keeping its own employees on the job.



• ESSAR Steel Algoma Incorporated's (Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario) plant in Sault Ste. Marie has been given notice that its 2.8 million-ton-per-year plant could go through a round of temporary layoffs. ESSAR Steel Algoma is a subsidiary of Essar Steel Limited (Mumbai, India). Further details were unavailable; however, the plant employs about 4,000 people. A temporary layoff is defined as a period of up to 35 weeks in one year.



• Border Steel Incorporated (Vinton, Texas), a subsidiary of a joint venture between Grupo Villacerois (Monterrey, Mexico) and ArcelorMittal Steel Company, is no more secure at its El Paso facility than its bigger brothers. The facility has a production rate of 300,000 tons per year and employs 450 people. The mini-mill could lay off 200 employees before the end of the year.



• Steel Dynamics Incorporated (NASDAQ:STLD) (Fort Wayne, Indiana) seems to be staying away from the layoff trend. For more information, see October 17, 2008, news article - Steel Dynamics' Profit Soars 92% Despite Steep Drop in Ferrous Scrap Prices.

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