U.S. Steel to invest $750 million to revitalize flagship Gary plant in wake of Trump tariffs

[Anti Federalist]

Reckon they'll be needing coal for coke, eh [MENTION=17293]Zippyjuan[/MENTION] ?


U.S. Steel to invest $750 million to revitalize flagship Gary plant in wake of Trump tariffs

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-biz-us-steel-tariffs-gary-plant-20180816-story.html

U.S. Steel Gary plant
The U.S. Steel Corp. plant in Gary is seen Oct. 11, 2007. U.S. Steel has announced it is investing $750 million into the 110-year-old plant. (John Smierciak / Chicago Tribune)
Robert ChannickContact Reporter
Chicago Tribune
U.S. Steel announced Thursday that it is investing $750 million to revitalize its flagship Gary plant to gear up for increased demand in the wake of President Donald Trump’s tariffs on imported steel.

The company said the investment will make “significant upgrades” to increase efficiencies at the 110-year-old Northwest Indiana plant, which is U.S. Steel’s largest, employing 3,800 workers.

The investment in the Gary plant is part of a $2 billion asset revitalization program at Pittsburgh-based U.S. Steel. The five-year Gary project will include building expansion and the installation of new production equipment and technology.

No new hires were announced as part of the plant improvements.

“There are no committed new jobs at this point, but the project will retain the more than 3,800 jobs in Gary,” Abby Gras, a spokeswoman for the Indiana Economic Development Corp., said Thursday.

U.S. Steel Corp. President and CEO David Burritt credited favorable trade policies on steel imports as instrumental to the company’s facility modernization program.

“We are pleased to be making this significant investment at Gary Works, which will improve the facility’s environmental performance, bolster our competitiveness and benefit the local community for years to come,” Burritt said in a news release.

“We are experiencing a renaissance at U.S. Steel,” he added.

Earlier this year, U.S. Steel announced it was restarting two blast furnaces and hiring 800 workers at a previously idled steel plant in downstate Granite City, near St. Louis. Trump visited the Illinois plant last month to celebrate its reopening as “a great victory" and a sign that his protectionist trade policies were working.

Trump imposed tariffs of 25 percent on imported steel and 10 percent on imported aluminum in March, launching an escalating trade war with China and other countries. The domestic steel industry has emerged as an early winner, but others may be hurt by retaliatory tariffs.

For example, Milwaukee-based manufacturer Harley-Davidson announced in June it would move some production overseas to avoid tariffs on American-made motorcycles imposed by the European Union in response to Trump’s measures.

China dominates the global steel market, but Trump’s tariffs on imported steel are seen as a catalyst for domestic manufacturers such as U.S. Steel.

U.S. and Chinese officials said Thursday they would hold talks later this month in a bid to ease the escalating trade war.

Located on the southern shore of Lake Michigan, Gary Works is U.S. Steel’s largest manufacturing plant, with an annual raw steelmaking capability of 7.5 million net tons. The facility makes sheet products, strip mill plate in coils and tin products.

“Today’s news is a major step forward that will have a lasting positive impact on the city of Gary, the northwest region and the state of Indiana for years to come,” Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb said in the release.

 

[Zippyjuan]

Reckon they'll be needing coal for coke, eh @Zippyjuan ?

Maybe. Or maybe not.

More jobs? From the OP:

No new hires were announced as part of the plant improvements.

“There are no committed new jobs at this point

and they may not use more coal after any upgrades. The trend is to move towards using gas instead.

https://www.thespec.com/news-story/4190319-u-s-steel-natural-gas-process-will-soon-replace-coke/

U.S. Steel: Natural gas process will soon replace coke

Nov 04, 2013

Coke will become all but obsolete in most steelmaking in about a decade, say some industry experts.

Technology both gaining ground and still in development will largely remove the need for the coal-based fuel in making high-quality steel, they say.

That is important in the wake of U.S. Steel's decision last week to end steel and iron making in Hamilton because the plant and 828 jobs will now hinge on coke-making, rolling, galvanizing and other finishing operations.

United Steelworkers says roughly 120 jobs are directly linked to coke-making in Hamilton.

A process called direct reduced iron uses natural gas to concentrate iron ore into pellets within a furnace that requires less, or in some cases, no coke, says steel expert Peter Warrian of the University of Toronto.

The process is less expensive and about 21 million tonnes of steel in the world is made this way now, says Warrian.

Steel companies are making big investments in developing the technology, he said.

"In the next 10 years, it will replace blast furnaces."

Bruce Steiner, president of the American Coke and Coal Chemicals Institute, says many integrated steel and iron companies are turning to natural gas over coal because it's both cheaper and more abundant than coal. That trend has especially taken hold in smaller operations overseas, where coal must be shipped in.

Some coal will always be used, but he said there "is a constant economic push to reduce coke in furnaces."

Over the long term, he says, research is developing alternatives to blast furnaces, which are expensive to build.

Most of the coal used to make coke — called metallurgical coal — comes from the central Appalachians in the United States, said Steiner. The low-sulphur, low-ash coal is mined from deep within the ground and transported around the world.

There is decades if not hundreds of years of supply, but its extraction leads to plenty of concerns about environmental damage and worker safety, says Steiner.

"There is a strong push to reduce coal consumption generally, but especially in the power sector."

But for now, coke is still strategically important and coke-making batteries are still "prize assets," said Warrian.

That was echoed by Tom Vert, general manager of primary manufacturing at ArcelorMittal Dofasco. He says that plant is using natural gas instead of coke in a "small percentage" of its blast furnaces.

"Coke-making remains an integral part of our steelmaking process. The quality of the steel we provide to our customers demands that coke be used in the blast furnace process, which produces high purity liquid iron and results in advanced high strength steel for automotive and tin plate for food packaging," he said.

The OP article says they are looking at:

The investment in the Gary plant is part of a $2 billion asset revitalization program at Pittsburgh-based U.S. Steel. The five-year Gary project will include building expansion and the installation of new production equipment and technology.

and

“We are pleased to be making this significant investment at Gary Works, which will improve the facility’s environmental performance, bolster our competitiveness and benefit the local community for years to come,” Burritt said in a news release.

Lower production costs as well as less pollution means that going to natural gas would fit their plans (though the article does not say what they intend to use).

 

[Jamesiv1]

The MAGA is strong in this thread.

 

[RonZeplin]

Appalachian cash crop - MAGA maryjane

Maybe. Or maybe not.

https://www.thespec.com/news-story/4190319-u-s-steel-natural-gas-process-will-soon-replace-coke/

Most of the coal used to make coke — called metallurgical coal — comes from the central Appalachians in the United States, said Steiner. The low-sulphur, low-ash coal is mined from deep within the ground and transported around the world.

There is decades if not hundreds of years of supply, but its extraction leads to plenty of concerns about environmental damage and worker safety, says Steiner.

"There is a strong push to reduce coal consumption generally, but especially in the power sector."

The Appalachians can switch to growing hemp, medicinal marihuana, and high end buzzweed. Possible tariff on Acapulco Gold, Michoacán.

 

[TheCount]

Will they get a bailout when the tariffs end?

 

[oyarde]

Will they get a bailout when the tariffs end?

I would be interested to know what the end uses were for chinese steel which is a much lower quality .

 

[angelatc]

Maybe. Or maybe not.

https://www.thespec.com/news-story/...t his "rebuttal" article is over 5 years old?

 

[Swordsmyth]

Am I the only person who noticed that his "rebuttal" article is over 5 years old?

I think most of us just ignored it on the assumption that it was nonsense somehow, good catch.

 

[oyarde]

Bump

 

[devil21]

I think most of us just ignored it on the assumption that it was nonsense somehow, good catch.

Did y'all read the article? It says the gas fired plants will be fully operational within 10 years. 2013+10=2023. Based on that timeline, the revitalization of this plant is highly likely to be gas powered, not coal powered. They wouldn't spend a boatload of money to upgrade coal fired when they know gas is available or soon-to-be.

 

[dannno]

Will they get a bailout when the tariffs end?

No they will export when the tariffs end. You are focused on the wrong tariffs. The temporary tariffs Trump is implementing that are being used to negotiate lower tariffs exporting into other countries are not of any consequence economically, except that things will be better in the future when all tariffs are lower.

 

[Swordsmyth]

Did y'all read the article? It says the gas fired plants will be fully operational within 10 years. 2013+10=2023. Based on that timeline, the revitalization of this plant is highly likely to be gas powered, not coal powered. They wouldn't spend a boatload of money to upgrade coal fired when they know gas is available or soon-to-be.

Or they made those plans when it looked like the government was going to kill coal and now that that isn't going to happen they might stick with coal.
I don't know enough to say for sure but a 2013 article doesn't necessarily have anything to do with current events, I have seen many articles proclaiming the shift to some new technology that never happened.

 

[devil21]

Or they made those plans when it looked like the government was going to kill coal and now that that isn't going to happen they might stick with coal.
I don't know enough to say for sure but a 2013 article doesn't necessarily have anything to do with current events, I have seen many articles proclaiming the shift to some new technology that never happened.

Source on your coal assertion please? And no, a Trump tweet does not count.

 

[Swordsmyth]

Source on your coal assertion please? And no, a Trump tweet does not count.

I said "might" and I said "I don't know enough to say for sure".
My point is that a 2013 article doesn't necessarily mean anything, you or zippy need to show me something that says the changeover actually happened or is happening.

 

[devil21]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...steelmakers-have-survived-without-trumps-help

I hate quoting wapo but the tech is changing to using natural gas to generate electricity to manipulate the steel products and away from coal fired furnaces. You won't like reading the part about how many jobs are lost because of it, though.

 

[Ender]

The Appalachians can switch to growing hemp, medicinal marihuana, and high end buzzweed. Possible tariff on Acapulco Gold, Michoacán.

Well, hemp could definitely take the place of coal, gas, AND steel.

 

[Swordsmyth]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...steelmakers-have-survived-without-trumps-help

I hate quoting wapo but the tech is changing to using natural gas to generate electricity to manipulate the steel products and away from coal fired furnaces. You won't like reading the part about how many jobs are lost because of it, though.

OK, well tech changes, that's not Trump's fault.
We still need to protect our industries against predatory trade practices and I'm sure some one will figure out something useful to do with the coal.

 

[RonZeplin]

Regressive Trump Admistration - Stuck in the Reefer Madness era

Well, hemp could definitely take the place of coal, gas, AND steel.

For the regressive Trump administration the 1936 film Reefer Madness, is the closest that they want to get to engineering and research.
Jeff Sessions would bust Henry Ford if he did that today.

The latest US Gov scientific data.

 

[Ender]

For the regressive Trump administration the 1936 film Reefer Madness, is the closest that they want to get to engineering and research.
Jeff Sessions would bust Henry Ford if he did that today.

The latest US Gov scientific data.

Yep.

The whole reason marijuana became illegal in the first place was because of hemp. Big Cotton/Steel couldn't have any hemp to compete with their revenue, so they convinced Big Gov to make hemp illegal by spinning stupid stories about it's sister plant mj. Hemp is not a drug & was considered a gift from God by most indigenous people. In George Washington's day people were taxed for NOT growing it, because it was so valuable.

 

[Swordsmyth]

I'm sure some one will figure out something useful to do with the coal.

[h=1]Coal Use Rises As Renewables Fall In U.S. Electricity Generation[/h]