Here comes the roller coaster.
From today’s Mesabi Daily News:
PITTSBURGH — The Keetac iron ore plant in Keewatin will be idled within the next several weeks.
United States Steel officials announced that Keetac’s shutdown is part of the company’s response to the global economic turndown.
Two facilities other than Keetac will also be idled over the next several weeks. They are Great Lakes Works near Detroit, Mich.; and Granite City Works near St. Louis, Mo. Approximately 3,500 employees will be affected. The unions representing workers at these facilities have been notified of the temporary idling and Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN) notices will be filed.
The Duluth News Tribune reports the same in a longer piece and that additional job losses are possible at Hibbing Taconite. The duration of these temporary shutdowns is unclear.
The price of steel has now dropped, on a percentage basis, more from its peak than it did during the Great Depression. This is a little misleading, because the price got very unsustainably and unrealistically high earlier this year. But hard times may be ahead.
It was international demand for steel in places like China, India, and Dubai, along with speculation that drove the prices up. Now that those economies have slowed with the rest of the world and speculators have learned their lesson, the price may not get that high again for a long, long time. Plus, American car manufacturers will not be building as many vehicles anymore, which will lower domestic demand. I hope I’m wrong, but I have a feeling the layoffs could last for a long time and delay, if not kill projects like Essar and Polymet.