U.S. Steel Corp. will restart the steelmaking facilities and one of two blast furnaces at its Granite City Works property in Illinois ahead of an anticipated surge in demand in the U.S. related to the government's plans to enforce tariffs on steel imports.
The company said March 7 that it expects to call about 500 employees back to the site starting this month, with the restart process expected to take up to four months.
President Donald Trump announced earlier in March that the U.S. will tax imports of steel at 25% and imports of aluminum at 10%.
Granite City Works' blast furnaces and steelmaking facilities were idled in December 2015 and the plant's hot strip mill was idled in January 2016 due to challenging market conditions.
"Our Granite City Works facility and employees, as well as the surrounding community, have suffered too long from the unending waves of unfairly traded steel products that have flooded U.S. markets," U.S. Steel President and CEO David Burritt said.
