[ad_1]
- US Steel has announced the layoff of about 200 workers at a Michigan plant, citing a "multitude of factors" including demand, import volume and declining steel prices.
- Deletions of temporary jobs can last more than six months.
- The layoffs come after US Steel in June announced its intention to put two kilns at rest, at the Great Lakes Works, Michigan, and at Gary Works, in Indiana. , where no dismissal is planned.
US Steel temporarily removes about 200 workers from its Michigan plant, highlighting the ongoing struggles of a company that President Donald Trump had touted as enjoying steel tariffs from his administration.
The layoffs, detailed in a August 5 announcement with the state of Michigan, will cover "almost all areas" of the facility, US Steel announced Tuesday in an e-mail release. The company has already temporarily laid off 48 workers at the Great Lakes plant and expects to lay more workers in September, bringing the total number of redundancies to 200.
In the United States, slight problems have emerged in recent months. In June, the Pittsburgh-based company announced the inactivity of two furnaces, one in Michigan and the other in Indiana. The company said there was no "one event" behind the layoffs. Rather, "current market conditions are affected by a multitude of factors," including price, demand, import volume, cost, and projected profit margins, US Steel said in the statement.
Layoffs are currently not planned in Indiana, said US Steel.
Trump: Steel "is booming"
US Steel's problems seem to undermine Trump's efforts to highlight the steelmaker – as well as the entire US steel industry – as a beneficiary of steel tariffs for his administration. For example, last year, he retweeted a Fox News article about an Indian steelmaker investing in the US, adding that "US steel also adds great capacity."
And last June, Trump spoke at an American steel plant, pointing to the link between his company's rates and what he described as a new job creation in the company. "Thanks to our prices, the inactive factories of our country are getting back to life," he said, according to a transcript.
Mr. Trump added, "And last month, US Steel announced the reopening of the second blast furnace, well ahead of schedule, which is close to a thousand jobs."
Last week, Mr. Trump told an audience at a Royal Dutch Shell factory that the steel "was dead" until it imposed new tariffs on the company. 39, imported steel last year.
"And, by the way, steel – steel was dead.Your business was dead.Okay? I do not want to be too raw.Your business was dead.And I put a little thing called "a 25% tariff" on all And now your business is prospering, "said Trump, according to remarks posted on the website of the White House.
Diving stock
The US stock price has fallen more than 70% since March 2018, when Mr. Trump first announced slap plans tariffs on steel imports. And despite the efforts of the Trump administration, the US steel industry is grappling with a number of problems.
On the one hand, prices for hot-rolled steel coils are down about 37% from their peak of 2018, according to Reuters. This type of steel is used in construction and in the automotive industry, whose growth rate is slowing down.
The steel industry is also facing a "glut" of supply, writes Bank of America analyst Timma Tammers in a recent memo called "steelmageddon". It predicts that prices for hot-rolled coils in 2022 will be even lower than recent prices.
New Pennsylvania factory
US Steel spends more than $ 1 billion on the construction of a new Pennsylvania treatment facility to cut costs and better compete with US competitors, which Trump boasted in May tweet.
For the moment, Michigan workers will wait.
"The stagnation of our product on the market is currently under constant evaluation in anticipation of its positive evolution," wrote Andrea A. Hunter, President of the Local Union of Steelworkers, to members on August 1 to inform them of upcoming layoffs. .
[ad_2]
Source link