US Steel will reduce capacity in a weak market

US Steel plans to cut capacity in the near future to cope with volatile market conditions.

“In response to current market conditions, we are taking action in line with our strategy to adjust the global footprint of the blast furnace,” the company said in a statement. "We are idling two blast furnaces in the US and one blast furnace in Europe to better align our global production with our order book."

The US Steel B2 blast furnace at its Great Lakes plants has already been closed for routine maintenance and will remain unavailable "... subject to current market conditions," the company said.

US Steel also plans to shut down a southern blast furnace at its Gary, Indiana plant. Blast furnaces have a total monthly production of 200,000-225.00 short tons.

“If both furnaces remain idling for the rest of the year, we expect our third-party customers to produce about 11 million tonnes of flat products annually,” US Steel said in a statement. "We will resume production of blast furnaces in one or both blast furnaces when market conditions improve."

In addition, US Steel plans to suspend its blast furnace # 2 in Europe at a cost of about 125,000. /Month (see related article).

The company expects to report second quarter earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization of $ 250 million. Mini-mill rivals Nucor and Steel Dynamics said this week that they expect second-quarter earnings to be lower than in the first and second quarters of 2018.