Nikki Budzinski

ST. LOUIS — U.S. Steel will stop processing steel slabs at its Granite City facility — another blow for steelworkers in the Metro East.

The company said Tuesday it would end delivery of slabs to Granite City in November and shift slab processing to its facilities in Indiana and Pennsylvania.

A statement from U.S. Steel said no layoffs would occur due to the decision. The 800-worker Granite City Works facility “will be maintained in an operational state,” said Amanda Malkowski, U.S. Steel spokesperson, in a statement.

But the company wasn’t clear on what work, if any, workers would be doing there. The unnamed spokesperson said employees would “maintain the facility in case the situation changes and run auxiliary facilities.”

U.S. Rep. Nikki Budzinski, D-Springfield, said the move puts jobs on the “chopping block” and that the decision affects the entire Granite City community.

A representative for the United Steelworkers union didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday.

There was already no steel production at the 130-year-old mill. Its last blast furnace for steel production was indefinitely idled in 2023.

But workers continued to process steel slabs, including rolling and finishing operations. The steel slabs had been shipped into Granite City Works from outside facilities.

Earlier this year, former President Joe Biden blocked Tokyo-based Nippon Steel’s acquisition of U.S. Steel. Then, in June, President Donald Trump green-lit a deal allowing for Nippon’s investment in U.S. Steel.

At the time, Nippon promised to keep the status quo at Granite City Works for the next two years.

The president of the local steelworkers union, Craig McKey, said then that didn’t mean much.

Budzinski, in a statement Monday, tied US Steel’s announcement to Trump’s approval of the Nippon-U.S. Steel deal. She said Trump visited Granite City in 2018 to boast about a supposed revival of American steel manufacturing.

“Now, he’s sold U.S. Steel to a foreign company and has put the very jobs he claimed to be saving on the chopping block,” Budzinski said.

White House spokesperson Kush Desai said in response to Budzinski that “no president in modern history has been more focused on reviving the American steel industry than President Trump.”

Desai, in a statement, touted Trump’s 50% tariffs on steel and steel derivative products, as well as a “golden share” agreement “to keep U.S. Steel in America.” The “golden share” provision allows the U.S. government to appoint a board member and weigh in on decisions affecting domestic steel production, the AP reported.

As part of an executive order Trump signed, Nippon was also required to adhere to a “national security agreement” and invest $11 billion by 2028, the Associated Press reported.

“The administration is focused on continuing to restore American steelmaking,” Desai said, “with a broader economic agenda of rapid deregulation, energy abundance, tariffs, and working-class tax cuts to boost both demand for and production of American steel.”

Malkowski said Tuesday that the stop to production in Granite City avoids “challenging product mixes” and “extensive cost inefficiencies.”

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Jack Suntrup | Post-Dispatch

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