The Granite City Works in Granite City, Illinois. (PHOTO: U.S. Steel)
Today, U.S. Steel announced it will temporarily idle its Granite City Works steel mill in Granite City, Illinois in 60 days, at roughly the same time the company idles Keewatin Taconite here in Northern Minnesota. The closure of the Illinois plant, near St. Louis, Missouri, will lay off more than 2,000 workers until the plant re-opens.
Granite City makes tubular steel products, the kind found in oil pipelines and industrial infrastructure. So in this case the cause is two-fold: extremely low taconite prices (now less than $55 per ton) and the slowdown in the domestic oil industry due to low oil prices.
The shutdown of this steel mill also indicates that it could take longer to expend the stockpiles sitting at Keewatin Taconite and other mines around the Iron Range. That would have the effect of prolonging any shutdowns, or causing new shutdowns to occur.
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