U.S. Steel preparing blast furnace
No date on potential restart: Union
August 21, 2009
Naomi Powell
http://www.thespec.com/News/BreakingNews/article/622334
U.S. Steel is preparing to restart its Hamilton blast furnace, nearly nine months after it was shut down due to slumping demand.
The firm has performed extensive maintenance and applied heat to the furnace - a final step before ironmaking begins, said Rolf Gerstenberger, president of the United Steelworkers union at the plant.
Despite these steps, Gerstenberger remains cautious about when steelmaking will resume at the plant.
“When they put coke and iron ore in the furnace, that’s when we’ll really be running again,” he said. “Until then, they could still change their minds.”
Though the union has been given no official timeline, the furnace could begin producing hot metal within days, he added.
The firm recalled its entire Hamilton workforce in July. With production shut down, about 950 workers have been mainly working on maintenance and painting projects. A restart of the plant would see them return to jobs on the blast furnace and associated operations.
U.S. Steel mothballed the Hamilton furnace in November and subsequently shuttered all Canadian operations, citing a lack of demand.
The Pittsburgh firm is now being sued by the Canadian government over the move, which Industry Minister Tony Clement claims violated commitments made by U.S. Steel when it bought Stelco in 2007.
It is unclear how a potential restart of the Hamilton operations would affect the lawsuit. According to legal documents filed by the Canadian government, U.S. Steel promised to produce 4.35 million tons of steel each year and employ 3,100 people.
With the firm’s Nanticoke plant still closed, the firm would fall far short of those targets even if production resumed in Hamilton.
U.S. Steel has locked out 1,000 workers at Lake Erie Works in Nanticoke after labour talks hit an impasse.
Union leaders say they’ve had no communication with the company since the lockout began on Aug.4.
The developments in Hamilton come as ArcelorMittal prepares to restart furnaces in Indiana and Ohio, in response to improving demand. Though steel producers had been devastated by a steep downturn in demand for cars, construction and manufactured goods, the industry has seen some signs of improvement in recent months. North American steel production increased to 6.9 million tons in July, up from 6.2million tons in June but still 40 per cent lower compared to the same month last year.
U.S. Steel declined to comment.