Union: U. S. Steel Plans to Idle Ohio Tubular Facility

03/08/2016 - United States Steel Corporation is planning to temporarily idle its Lorain, Ohio, USA, seamless tube mills, for two weeks, if not longer, a union official told The (Lorain County) Chronicle-Telegram newspaper.

Citing a United Steelworkers local president, the newspaper reported that the idling is to begin 27 March and likely will remain in effect until orders pick up.

In a statement to AIST Steel News, a U. S. Steel spokeswoman said only that the company continues to “adjust operations at the facility to meet customer demand.”

There were no WARN Act notices from U. S. Steel listed on the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services website.

The ongoing rout in oil and gas prices has brought energy exploration to a near standstill, crimping demand for pipe and tube. In fact, the Baker Hughes U.S. rig count, a barometer for oil country tubular goods demand, fell to 489 on 4 March, one away from a record low.

The count is down nearly 30 percent from the beginning of the year and almost 60 percent from the same week in March 2015. At the same time, domestic steelmakers are under pressure from low-cost imports. Taken together, the factors have prompted tube manufacturers to cut production and lay off workers.

TMK IPSCO, for instance, put 106 employees at its Brookfield, Ohio, connections facility on notice that they may be let go beginning 4 April. And slightly more than 110 are under notice at its Baytown, Texas, finishing facility.

Elsewhere in Texas, Tenaris has given notice that it will close its Houston couplings facility and lay off up to 166 people by 31 March.

U. S. Steel in January gave notice to 679 workers at its Lone Star plant in Texas that it plans to curtail operations and begin laying off on 13 March.