Steel Mills
Coronavirus Forces JSW USA to Idle Some Operations
Written by Tim Triplett
April 16, 2020
JSW Steel USA will idle facilities and lay off workers at its plants in Mingo Junction, Ohio, and Baytown, Texas, in an effort to mitigate the impact of the coronavirus pandemic and chaos in the oil and gas market on steel demand.
The company said it will temporarily idle the hot rolling mill and EAF at Mingo Junction in mid-April for approximately four weeks. Planned CAPEX projects related to EAF modernization and general maintenance will be completed.
The company will continue the hot rolling of plate at its Baytown Plate mill as it completes the cold commissioning of Phase-1 of the $260 million plate mill modernization project. Plate processing and shipping also will continue to assure that all customer deliveries are met on time.
The Baytown pipe mill will be put in “care and maintenance” mode from mid-May onwards to complete several maintenance projects so the mill can be restarted on short notice when the market improves, the company said.
Because of these temporary changes to operations at Mingo Junction and Baytown, JSW will temporarily lay off certain employees in April and May. The company has issued WARN Act notices to state and local officials. It expects to call back many of the laid off employees when operations are restarted in May and June.
“We remain committed to supporting all our employees and their families in this challenging environment, and we will continue to provide medical benefits until the end of the month to employees who are laid off during the month,” said JSW USA President and CEO John Hritz. “We believe that with the combination of the medical benefits that we will be providing and the additional unemployment benefits announced under the CARES Act of 2020, the employees who are laid off for a short time will be able to cushion the impact and support their families during this period.”
Added Hritz: “As we continue with our new Mingo Junction Electric Arc Furnace and new Baytown Plate Mill installations, we stand ready to ramp up our capacity utilization at each facility, based on customer demand.”
Tim Triplett
Read more from Tim TriplettLatest in Steel Mills
Algoma to shut down line in Ontario ahead of EAF start
The 106” Mill was part of Algoma's plate and strip combination facility.
Nippon trial vs. US government to begin early next month: Report
Nippon Steel’s litigation against the US government is set to begin in early February, according to a report by Japan’s Kyodo News Agency. Nippon will file its opening brief on Feb. 3. And both parties will conclude their claims by March 17 in the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, Kyodo […]
Nucor carbon targets certified by GSCC
Nucor’s “ambitious” carbon targets by the end of the decade and beyond have been certified by the Global Steel Climate Council (GSCC). The Charlotte, N.C.-based steelmaker used a base year of 2023 for its science-based emissions targets (SBET). It set an SBET of 0.975 metric tons (mt) of CO2 emissions per mt of hot-rolled steel […]
SSAB halts talks with Feds on Miss. green steel plant
The Department of Energy's Industrial Demonstrations Program page states that it is no longer moving forward with SSAB.
Cleveland-Cliffs CEO seeks ‘American solution’ for U.S. Steel
He said a new entity would operate under the U.S. Steel name and would retain its Pittsburgh headquarters.