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Lisa Grace Marr | Source: Hamilton Spectator

ArcelorMittal Dofasco will scale back steel production in the second half of the year as it struggles with a weakening customer base and “tough economic times.”

The company indicated it would be reducing output in its steelmaking and finishing operations.

It also plans to cut back on overtime and will reduce its casual employee base. Full-time jobs will not be affected at this time, it said.

More about this move at the Hamilton Spectator >>

Source: SteelGuru

The Platts reference prices of imported and domestic made hot rolled and cold rolled coil in the US market plunged amid reports of US mill sales reps calling buyers almost non stop seeking October 2008 orders.

There has also been a resurgence of low-priced offers from offshore producers, mainly HRC from Russia and CRC from China and Finland.

The major flat rolling mills namely US Steel, Nucor and ArcelorMittal, had been trying to separately hold offers within a range of USD 1,000 to USD 1,020 per short tonne ex-works in the case of HRC. That stance, however, was undermined by…

Read the full piece at SteelGuru >>

Source: The Toronto Star

ArcelorMittal, the world’s largest steel maker, unveiled a plan yesterday to cut $4 billion (U.S.) in costs in five years and said it was preparing to reduce production by up to 15 per cent to support prices.

The company, formed from the 2006 merger of Arcelor and Mittal, said that its bid to ensure cost leadership in the sector would focus on employee productivity, reducing energy consumption and decreasing input costs.

Full story at the Toronto Star >>

Eric McGuinness | Source: Hamilton Spectator

Four Hamilton industries, including the two big steelmakers, will no longer be allowed to exceed bylaw limits for phenolic compounds going into city sewers.

U.S. Steel, ArcelorMittal Dofasco, tar producer VFT Canada and waste manager Newalta have overstrength agreements under which they pay the city to treat phenol compounds in their sewage. Similar agreements exist for other chemicals the Woodward Avenue wastewater plant is said to be capable of handling.

But Jim Harnum, senior director of water and wastewater, told council’s public works committee yesterday that the plant’s effluent, which flows into the harbour, doesn’t meet the provincial objective of 0.001 milligrams of phenol per litre.

In addition, some phenol compounds are toxic and the city can’t test for them all.

Phenolic compounds include coal-tar derivatives used in germicides and disinfectants, the brain chemical serotonin and capsaicin in pepper spray.

Read the full story at the Hamilton Spectator >>

BY ANDREA HOLECEK | Source: NWI Times

ArcelorMittal will begin a $100 million reline of its 39-year-old “D” blast furnace at its Burns Harbor plant beginning Sept. 25, company officials said.

The long-postponed reline will take about two and a half months with its restart expected for mid December.

ArcelorMittal is relining the furnace “for improved safety, reliability, productivity and energy efficiency,” according to a company statement.

The refractory brick in a blast furnace’s interior is replaced during a reline. The brick absorbs the heat from the molten metal inside the furnace protecting its walls. Ideally, furnaces are relined every decade, industry experts say.

The “D” furnace, which produces 700 tons of hot iron daily, was built in 1969 and was relined in 1975, 1980, 1986 and 1991, according to the company. The furnace had been scheduled for a complete reline in 1998, but the financial conditions of Bethlehem Steel Corp., which owned it at the time, prevented the company from doing the work.

Read more about D Furnace’s history, how reline will affect Burns Harbor operations at the NWI Times >>

By Tom Stundza | Source: Purchasing.com

ArcelorMittal also will spend $160 million to buy the Monessen Coke Plant in Monessen, Pa., from Koppers to secure more of the baked coal fuel needed to fire steel furnaces.

Read the full story at Purchasing.com >>

Source: NWI Times

While United Steelworkers members of the region’s largest steel mills await ratification of labor agreements, those at Indiana Harbor Coke Co. still await a contract.

United Steelworkers Amalgamated Local 1010 represents about 105 workers at the Sun Coke Energy Inc.-owned plant that supplies coke to ArcelorMittal’s Indiana Harbor mill. Coke is superheated coal — one of the main ingredients for making liquid iron in a blast furnace.

Signed in February 2006, the USW/Indiana Harbor Coke labor agreement expired Monday. The Sun Coke agreement has been extended until a new agreement is reached, Tom Hargrove, president of USW Local 1010, said Wednesday.

More information about business ties, issues at the NWI Times >>

Andrea Holecek | Source: NWI Times

PSC Metals Inc.’s contract for scrap metal processing work at ArcelorMittal’s Burns Harbor mill ends in October, also ending employment for 108 of the company’s local workers, the company has told the state.

… The contract was awarded to Scrap Metal Services Co., of Burnham. No one from SMS could be reached by The Times for comment Tuesday as of press time.

Linda Bogdanovic, vice president of Human Resources for PSC Metals Inc., said her company has held the contract for the Burns Harbor mill for about 40 years.

Read the full story at the NWI Times >>

Related: Red-hot replies singe and support steelworkers’ jobs and image - Post-Trib *14 comments*

Kevin Nevers | Source: Chesterton Tribune

ArcelorMittal has blinked.

Just before 2 p.m. on Saturday (CST) the presidents of 16 United Steelworkers (USW) locals voted 15-1 to endorse a new tentative four-year agreement with the company and present that contract to the membership for a vote.

On all the major issues—the so-called “bulleted items”—the company has relented and met the union’s terms, Local 6787 President Paul Gipson told the Chesterton Tribune on Saturday.

…Only 24 hours previously there had been nothing between the USW and ArcelorMittal but daylight, the union’s negotiators were tired and angry and grim, and a walkout at 12:01 a.m. on Monday—Labor Day—seemed inevitable. Twenty-four hours later Gipson gave the Burns Harbor plant manager the green light to fire up the coke ovens and the blast furnaces.

To those blast furnaces, in fact—not only the two at the Burns Harbor facility but the company’s seven others in the U.S.—Gipson attributed the victory, to the likelihood of those furnaces being damaged in an outage performed by management alone.

“We made them worry about those furnaces,” he said. “We always had the biggest concern for the safety of the guys running them and for the integrity of the furnaces themselves. They saw our deep concern. We seemed to have more concern about those furnaces than they did. They waited too long to start banking them. They should have started at least 10 days before the expiration of the contract.”

Read the rest of this insightful story at the Chesterton Tribune >>

BY KEITH BENMAN | Source: NWI Times

One of the fliers was posted Monday evening on the USW Local 1010 Web site and shows the USW won pension credit for members who missed years of work from 1985 to 1999 due to layoff.

Special attention was paid to retirement benefits in the negotiations, not only for ArcelorMittal employees, but also for those of long-gone steel companies such as Acme, Bethlehem and LTV.

A health care-benefit trust fund for those employees will get company contributions of $25 million every three months for the life of the contract. Thousands of employees and retirees of those companies lost pensions and health care in bankruptcies.

Full story, comments at the NWI Times >>

by ANDREA HOLECEK | Source: NWI Times

The agreement, reached Saturday, follows the pattern set earlier this month by the USW’s pact with U.S. Steel Corp, and comes just over two days prior to the expiration of the current contract at 11:59 p.m. Monday, said Jim Robinson, USW District 7 director.

If ratified by the 14,000 USW members who work at ArcelorMittal’s 14 domestic facilities, the agreement will provide for a one-time $6,000 bonus per worker, a $1 her hour wage increase for the first year of the contract and a 4 percent wage increase for each of the following years, Robinson said. The agreement also provides a significant reduction in the cost of health care for union retirees, he said.

Health care co-payments would be reduced to $70 for each claim for those under 65 years of age, and to $35 for those who are Medicare eligible.

…the tentative agreement also includes an increase in the company’s pension contribution from $1.80 to $2.65 per hour, company contributions to a retiree fund for former employees of Acme, Bethlehem, Georgetown and LTV and increased profit sharing.

Read the full story, dozens of local comments at the NWI Times >>

Source: USW

The United Steelworkers (USW) today announced that the union has reached tentative agreement on a new, four-year contract with ArcelorMittal USA.

“Our members and retirees at ArcelorMittal now have the opportunity to enjoy the employment security, economic security and retirement security they earned through years of hard work and sacrifice,” said USW International President Leo W. Gerard. “These members’ unwavering, long-term solidarity and support for our bargaining committee has been rewarded.”

Over the next several weeks, about 14,000 USW-represented hourly production, maintenance, office and technical employees at ArcelorMittal facilities in eight states will discuss the proposed agreement with their negotiating committees before voting on whether to accept or reject the proposed four-year contract. Read the rest of this entry »

Related: USW members give union strike approval - NWI Times *over 150 comments*

by Kevin Nevers | Source: Chesterton Tribune

Some 1,400 members of United Steelworkers Local 6787 voted unanimously on Wednesday to authorize International President Leo Gerard to call a strike against ArcelorMittal if a new contract has not been reached when the current one expires at midnight Sunday.

… “I doubt if any of the locals wouldn’t vote to strike,” Gipson said. “Because most of these guys were around when the steelmakers started going bankrupt. They witnessed the crisis. The lived it. They saw retirees who lost their health care and retirees who saw their payments cut when the (Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation) took over their pensions. And they know (Lakshmi Mittal) is doing pretty well right now.”

… Gipson did say that, strike or no strike, “it will take years to repair the damage done” to the relationship between the union and the company. “Everyone I’ve talked to is mad. They all know retirees who say ‘I’m tired of asking my kids to help me. I’m tired of having to decide whether to eat or buy my prescription meds.’”

Meanwhile, preparations for a strike continue. “We started banking the coke ovens and shutting down the blast furnaces,” Gipson said, although he added that the outage should have begun days ago. “In 1993 we were going to strike Bethlehem and we started taking the furnaces down well in advance of the deadline. It’s a slow process to do it properly. You run the risk of damaging things if you do it too quickly. And it wouldn’t have done anyone any good if a blast furnace was damaged and then a contract was reached.”

Read the full story at the Chesterton Tribune >>

Related:

• USW At Arcelor Mittal In Weirton Will Take Strike Vote - WTRF
• Steel talks stall - NWI

BY ANDREA HOLECEK | Source: NWI

The United Steelworkers union is asking its 14,000 members at ArcelorMittal U.S. plants to give the union permission to authorize a strike against the company “if it becomes necessary.”

The strike authorization votes will be taken Wednesday at the 14 United Steelworkers locals representing ArcelorMittal’s hourly workers, according to a handbill being distributed today at ArcelorMittal’s domestic plants.

Read the full story, comments at NWI >>

We are closing comments on this entry so that all commentary is funneled to local outlets.

Source: WDIO TV

U.S. Steel employees are getting ready to vote on their new proposed labor agreement, which was announced last week.

The Minntac union is holding meetings Thursday, and Keetac is holding meetings on Friday.

The Steelworkers will have a chance to go over the contract and ask questions.

Then the mail-in ballot process will begin. Local Steelworkers will travel to Pittsburgh to help count the votes. This will likely be the second week in September.

Contracts at the mines expire September 1st. U.S. Steel is the only company to have a deal on the table. Arcelor Mittal and Cleveland Cliffs continue to negotiate.

Related: Labor negotiations closely watched by Wall Street - NWI Times

BY ANDREA HOLECEK | Source: Times Online

The presidents of the 12 USW locals covering about 14,000 workers at ArcelorMittal facilities are returning to Pittsburgh for a strategy session today. Negotiations with the company are scheduled to resume Monday.

Although agreements were reached on some issues, talks broke off Aug. 8 after the company rejected what the USW said was its final proposal, and the union rejected the company’s counteroffer.

The USW negotiating team for ArcelorMittal had hoped to reach an agreement that would set the pattern for the industry. Their hopes were dashed Monday when the union approved a tentative agreement with U.S. Steel Corp.

But the locals’ presidents specifically were asked not to take a strike authorization vote when they returned from Pittsburgh last week, according to a message one sent to his members.

Jim Robinson, USW District 7 director, said Thursday the union “has every intention” of reaching an agreement with ArcelorMittal next week.

Quotes, specific issues at the Times Online >>

Elisabeth Johns | Source: Hamilton Spectator

Last week, a crowd at Ivor Wynne Stadium watched as a U.S. Steel Canada blast furnace belched out a black cloud.

On Wednesday, another black cloud containing coal and iron ore emissions floated over the city’s north end, one more product of a pressure release from an ArcelorMittal Dofasco blast furnace.

And Thursday afternoon, two thick red clouds filled with iron oxide spewed in nearly as many hours in another release from ArcelorMittal Dofasco’s blast furnace.

… On Aug. 6, in an unprecedented move, the company shut down a blast furnace because of the impact the wet weather is having on operations.

“Moisture poses a serious risk factor that we guard against every day as the reactions can be fast and sometimes violent, and can impact equipment, health and safety and, of course, environment,” said Andrew Sloan, company spokesperson.

The raw materials sitting in piles outside the plants — mostly coal and iron ore — soak up rainwater.

This excess moisture is causing more volatile reactions when these materials are heated in the blast furnace to make iron, the principal component of steel.

ArcelorMittal Dofasco shut down the blast furnace in a move that hasn’t been made in the past quarter-century, Sloan said.

Full story, picture of emissions cloud at the Hamilton Spectator >>

Georgette Senter | Source: The News-Dispatch

A La Porte County man who lost both legs in an accident at ArcelorMittal Steel Mill in Burns Harbor two weeks ago has not lost his zest for life.

James Dolph, 56, suffered massive injuries on July 30.

A railcar he was attempting to switch to a different track rolled over Dolph, severing both legs. His left leg was severed 5 inches below the knee and his right leg was severed 7 1/2 inches above the knee.

… After the accident, Dolph was airlifted to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, Ill., where doctors operated to reduce the trauma to Dolph’s injuries.

Leidy said Wednesday her father has been transferred to a rehabilitation center in South Bend where he as begun the process of healing and recovery.

…  Dolph has worked at the mill for 36 years. His daughter said the day of the accident was actually her father’s day off but another manager was on vacation so he had decided to work.

Once his legs are healed, Dolph will be fitted for prosthetic legs, Leidy said.

In the meantime, family members, friends and co-workers have come together to support Dolph, and his wife, Janet.

“It has only been two weeks since the accident and a ramp has been built at my parents’ house,” Leidy said. “We are prepared for when he can come home.”

Doctors have told Dolph he may be in rehabilitation until Christmas.

There is great inspiration behind James Dolph’s story, read how he still plans to finish hiking the Appalacian Trail >>

Source: Sunny Steel News Center

Prices continued to increase for all steel products and the mills have announced further price increases for August and September. Our contacts voiced increased pessimism, however, on the ability of the mills to pass along the announced increases and as well as achieve higher pricing in the fourth quarter.

… The diminishing outlook of distributors on steel-pricing fundamentals is driven by the widely reported declines in ferrous scrap pricing and further weakness in demand, particularly for automotive.

… ArcelorMittal is taking a fourth-quarter 2008 100-day maintenance outage at its Burns Harbor mill, which will significantly reduce the amount of steel production aimed at the sluggish domestic automotive industry.

Many more predictions, citations at the Sunny Steel News Center >>

Source: Post-Tribune

BURNS HARBOR — An ArcelorMittal supervisor lost both legs Wednesday when a rail car carrying coal inside the Burns Harbor plant rolled over him, the state Department of Labor confirmed.

… Union leaders with the United Steelworkers are negotiating a new contract with the multinational steel corporation to replace a 2003 agreement that expires this month.

Workplace safety issues have been featured prominently in the talks after a rise in serious and fatal accidents since the former Mittal Steel took over the plants in Burns Harbor and East Chicago three years ago.

Read the full story at the Post-Tribune >>