Welcome Back, Stelco - Page 11

SteelTown · #**201** Posted **Oct 16, 2011, 2:14 AM**

U.S. Steel lockout over

After 11 months on the picket line, U.S. Steel workers voted to accept the company’s offer Saturday night.

SteelTown · #**202** Posted **Dec 7, 2011, 2:09 PM**

I can definitely tell Stelco is back. Drive up or down the 403 along the Escarpment and you can smell Stelco.

SteelTown · #**203** Posted **Dec 12, 2011, 10:07 PM**

Ottawa settles lawsuit with U.S. Steel

http://www.thespec.com/news/business...with-u-s-steel

The lawsuit between U. S. Steel and the federal government has been settled.

In a statement today Industry Minister Christian Paradis said the settlement gives Canada “significant” assurance of jobs and investment in Canada.

The minister says the company, which acquired Stelco in 2007, has committed to keep operating in Hamilton and Nanticoke on the shore of Lake Erie until at least 2015.

The company is also promising to invest $50 million in capital spending by the end of 2015.

SteelTown · #**204** Posted **Jan 31, 2012, 9:46 PM**

No U.S. Steel production in Hamilton this year

http://www.thespec.com/news/business...lton-this-year

US Steel chairman John Surma says steel making operations in Hamilton will not resume this year.

He told a conference call with industry analysts this afternoon the cost of getting the plant back into service is too high for the current market.

“We are planning to run everything we have except for Hamilton pretty much flat out,” he said.

Before restarting the Hamilton plant, Surma said the company needs a strong market recovery to justify the cost of putting the factory back into service.

Surma was explaining the company’s $68 million loss last year.

CaptainKirk · #**205** Posted **Feb 1, 2012, 12:07 AM**

It's time has come. Time to say goodbye to Stelco and start re purposing that land.

Hamilton is doing just fine now.

Jon Dalton · #**206** Posted **Feb 1, 2012, 7:50 PM**

Well it seems awfully convenient for US Steel that they are able to keep their US facilities near full production, without the competition of a privately owned Stelco. Could it be that this is why they purchased it?

markbarbera · #**207** Posted **Feb 1, 2012, 8:30 PM**

The Nanticoke facility (also a former Stelco property now owned by U.S. Steel) will operate at near-full capacity steel production for the next year along with the other USS properties.

SteelTown · #**208** Posted **Mar 22, 2012, 6:32 PM**

U. S. Steel reopening part of Hamilton plant in May

http://www.thespec.com/news/business...n-plant-in-may

New life is coming back to part of U. S. Steel’s Hamilton operation.

The company has confirmed it will restart its #3 galvanizing line at the former Stelco plant by the middle of the second quarter of this year – sometime in May.

The move means some of the roughly 250 workers who have been fearing a lay off notice at the end of April will stay employed.

U. S. Steel spokesman Trevor Harris said the decision has been driven by demand from customers in the construction and appliance industries.

“It means a lot of those people are going to have gainful employment after their six month guarantee,” Harris said. “We’re not talking about hundreds of people, but there will be work.”

As for the rest of the Hamilton steel making operation, Harris said there are no current plans to restart the blast furnace.

See tomorrow’s Spectator for the full story.

SteelTown · #**209** Posted **Aug 23, 2012, 3:10 PM**

Hiring blitz and recalling laid off workers....

http://m.thespec.com/news/business/a...s-hiring-blitz

durandy · #**210** Posted **Nov 12, 2012, 4:15 PM**

Interesting Mahoney article on tour guides at Stelco in the 50s and 60s.

http://www.thespec.com/news/local/ar...-tour-de-force

Would be pretty great to be able to tour some of the factories. Might raise some local pride in our industry again.

thistleclub · #**211** Posted **Dec 16, 2012, 1:10 PM**

Welcome to Saudi Albany?
(New York Times Magazine, Adam Davidson, Dec 16, 2012)

The people who run U.S. Steel have not had much reason to celebrate in a long time. Once the icon of American manufacturing, the company became shorthand for the country’s industrial decline. For decades, it ignored innovation and was undercut by cheaper Asian producers and outflanked by U.S. start-ups. Its brief glory in the mid-2000s turned out to be fueled by housing-bubble excess; and its stock price has dropped nearly 90 percent since late 2008. A few months ago, John P. Surma, the company’s chairman and C.E.O., addressed a Steel Hall of Fame event at which all the inductees were either long dead or retired. He noted that, given the business climate, his own generation of steel C.E.O.’s might have trouble getting the big prize themselves.

Fortunately, Surma went on, this misery is about to change. The American steel industry recently received the economic equivalent of a gift from the heavens: natural gas extracted by means of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. Fracking involves a whole lot of long steel pipes being sunk into rock formations thousands of feet beneath the ground in search of hydrocarbons. U.S. Steel, which is based in Pittsburgh, also happens to be right on top of the Marcellus Shale, the oil-rich formation that stretches from New York to Ohio. No one knows exactly how much gas is down there, but modest estimates suggest it’s at least 100 trillion cubic feet. Given this bounty, U.S. Steel recently spent $100 million on a facility whose entire purpose is to make “tubular product” for gas companies.

For Surma, an even bigger gift should come over the next few decades. The switch from coal to cheaper natural gas will save U.S. Steel hundreds of millions of dollars a year. These savings will be amplified by the fact that the company’s competitors in Europe and Asia will need to pay much more. In fact, many economists say that fracking will soon fundamentally shift global economic logic to uniquely benefit the United States. Ed Morse, an influential energy analyst at Citigroup, argues that the natural-gas industry will bring around three million new jobs to the United States by the end of this decade. He also expects that fracking will add up to 3 percent to our G.D.P. and trillions in additional tax revenue. Along the way, it will turn around perennial stragglers, like steel and manufacturing. For millions of workers, there could not be any better news.

+ Some additional detail on the $100m Lorain facility and USS' interactive map of the Marcellus Shale formation.

thistleclub · #**212** Posted **Apr 28, 2013, 2:34 PM**

U.S. Steel to start third lock out Sunday
(Hamilton Spectator, Steve Arnold, April 27 2013)

For the third time since it was allowed into Canada U. S. Steel will lock out a portion of its Canadian workforce on Sunday to back demands for contract concessions.

The company announced the action Thursday morning affecting about 1,000 workers.

“I really don’t think anything can be done to stop this now,” said Bill Ferguson, president of Local 8782 of the United Steel Workers. “This company has had three sets of negotiations since it came to Canada and this is its third lock out.”

Lake Erie workers were previously locked out for eight months from August 2009-April 2010 and Hamilton workers faced a similar confrontation from November 2010 to October 2011.

Those earlier lock outs were over company demands for sweeping changes to the pension plans. Those demands included the end of pension indexing for retirees and closing the defined benefit pension plan to new hires, pushing them instead into a defined contribution system.

The issues in this contract round aren’t as stark. The company wants to cap vacation entitlements for new employees, to compress more than two dozen job classes into eight and to change the cost of living formula to pay 80 per cent less than it does now.

The company’s package seemed to offer a general wage increase of $1.01 an hour – but workers quickly identified that as a cost of living allowance payment they’d earned under the previous contract. The company’s real offer was no raise for three years.

U. S. Steel also lowered the trigger for payments under its profit sharing plan – a move workers dismissed since the plan did not pay anything last year and workers don’t expect it to pay anything this year either. They also note dire warnings from the company that the Nanticoke plant is a major money loser.

“A lot of the things in that package are things they already owe us from the last contract,” Ferguson said. “It’s all part of their propaganda campaign.”

U. S. Steel Canada spokesman Trevor Harris did not return repeated calls for comment.

American steel analyst Chuck Bradford said the confrontation comes at a time when U. S. Steel is losing money in a soft market and wondered if a “get tough” attitude with Canadian workers isn’t a scrap being thrown to market analysts who will pass judgment on the company’s first quarter earnings report Tuesday.

“Maybe they’re trying to make a show because of the losses they’re going to report on Tuesday,” he said. “The issues this time out really aren’t that big.

“We can only hope that some level heads realize this really isn’t in anyone’s best interests,” he added.

thistleclub · #**213** Posted **Oct 29, 2013, 8:36 PM**

Via Reuters:

U.S. Steel to permanently shut Ontario mill
Tue Oct 29, 2013 3:54pm EDT

TORONTO (Reuters) - United States Steel Corp said on Tuesday it will permanently shut down iron and steelmaking operations at its Hamilton, Ontario, mill at the end of this year.

The integrated mill was idled in 2010, but the steelmaker had not ruled out restarting production if the market improved.

U.S. Steel will take a noncash charge of about $225 million in the fourth quarter because of the closure, Chief Executive Mario Longhi told analysts and investors on a conference call.

Longhi said the move would reduce U.S. Steel's costs by about $50 million a year, and allow it to shut down two aging coke batteries at its Gary Works in Indiana. The company will also let some iron ore supply contracts expire in 2013 and 2014.

Shares jumped on the news, and were up 6.7 percent at $24.99 shortly before the close of trading on the New York Stock Exchange on Tuesday.

SteelTown · #**214** Posted **Oct 29, 2013, 8:54 PM**

So it is truly goodbye to Stelco?

Jon Dalton · #**215** Posted **Oct 29, 2013, 9:50 PM**

Holy shit. I hope this isn't Lakeport all over again. As in, they shut down and move / scrap equipment to make sure another steel company can't buy it and resume production.

SteelTown · #**216** Posted **Oct 29, 2013, 10:42 PM**

U.S. Steel permanently closes Hamilton blast furnace and steelmaking

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/hamilt...king-1.2287483

U.S. Steel will permanently close its idle iron and steel-making operations in Hamilton by the end of the year, but coke production at the plant will continue, officials say.

Mario Longhi, CEO of U.S. Steel Corp., said in a conference call Tuesday that it will close the operations by Dec. 31.

Forty-seven non-union employees will be "affected," according to U.S. Steel spokeswoman Courtney Boone.

“Notice will be provided to those employees affected, and every effort will be made to reassign them," she told CBC News. “The permanent shutdown affects the iron and steel-making operations, which have been on temporary idle since late 2010.”

The blast furnace, steel shop and casters will be permanently shut, she said. “Coke making and finishing at the Hamilton works will continue.”

Rolf Gerstenberger, head of Steelworkers local 1005, said the announcement is mainly a loss of hope that the steel-making jobs would return.

"It means we're not going to make steel in Hamilton, we're just going to roll it."

He said the announcement will have no impact on the 600 or so unionized workers still employed there. In its heyday in the 1980s, the plant, then known as Stelco's Hilton Works, employed roughly 14,000 people.

The company said it will take a non-cash charge in its fourth quarter of approximately $225 million related to the decision.

U.S. Steel acquired the integrated steel-making operations when it bought Stelco, one of Canada's largest steel manufacturers, in 2007.

The U.S. company pledged at the time to invest at least $200 million in its Canadian facilities, to produce an average of 4.3 million tons annually over a three-year span, and to employ an average of 3,105 employees.

In 2011, U.S. Steel made a deal with the federal government to keep producing steel in Canada and operate its Lake Erie and Hamilton plants until 2015. It also pledged an additional $50 million in investment to settle with Ottawa, which had taken court action against the company over production cutbacks.

Berklon · #**217** Posted **Oct 29, 2013, 11:12 PM**

Sad, but really not surprising.

Ah the memories of working at Stelco 25 years ago. It was a great way for a youngen to make some serious coin... especially working all the OT possible at 1.5x and double-time pay.

markbarbera · #**218** Posted **Oct 30, 2013, 11:17 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by SteelTown

So it is truly goodbye to Stelco?

Nope. All that was announced yesterday was that the steel production that was stopped in 2010 will be a permanent closure. 47 non-union jobs that have been maintaining the idled blast furnace will be lost, while the 600 unionize positions remain working at the Hamilton plant. Production of coke and steel finishing will continue. The Nanticoke plant uses the coke produced here, and much of the raw steel produced there that requires specialized finishing continues to be finished here.

This is really not a huge story. Local media has gone wild covering this because it provides a sensational headline that may sell a couple more papers or drive more Internet traffic to their honeypot websites.

mattgrande · #**219** Posted **Oct 30, 2013, 11:44 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by markbarbera

Nope. All that was announced yesterday was that the steel production that was stopped in 2010 will be a permanent closure. 47 non-union jobs that have been maintaining the idled blast furnace will be lost, while the 600 unionize positions remain working at the Hamilton plant. Production of coke and steel finishing will continue. The Nanticoke plant uses the coke produced here, and much of the raw steel produced there that requires specialized finishing continues to be finished here.

This is really not a huge story. Local media has gone wild covering this because it provides a sensational headline that may sell a couple more papers or drive more Internet traffic to their honeypot websites.

I read in one of the other articles that they're finding jobs for those 47 non-union workers as well.

Edit: Although when they talked about it on the radio this morning, it sounded like they were being let go, so now I'm not sure.

ScreamingViking · #**220** Posted **Oct 30, 2013, 8:16 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by markbarbera

Nope. All that was announced yesterday was that the steel production that was stopped in 2010 will be a permanent closure. 47 non-union jobs that have been maintaining the idled blast furnace will be lost, while the 600 unionize positions remain working at the Hamilton plant. Production of coke and steel finishing will continue. The Nanticoke plant uses the coke produced here, and much of the raw steel produced there that requires specialized finishing continues to be finished here.

This is really not a huge story. Local media has gone wild covering this because it provides a sensational headline that may sell a couple more papers or drive more Internet traffic to their honeypot websites.

Still, it is a milestone moment for the city.

I have to wonder how long it will be until USS shuts down completely.