Burns Harbor production slows at ArcelorMittal steel mills

BY ANDREA HOLECEK, Times of Northwest Indiana
holecek@nwitimes.com

BURNS HARBOR | ArcelorMittal's Burns Harbor plant is producing at a third of its 5 million ton capacity, but unlike some other company plants, it remains in operation, said Paul Gipson, president of the union local there.

Of the 3,400 employees represented by the local, 490 are on an open-ended layoff, and another 900 have been working a shortened schedule of 32 hours per week for the past six weeks, Gipson said.

The company planned the layoffs in response to the extremely weak global steel market.

"But that's better than having your plant idling," he said. "(ArcelorMittal-owned) Georgetown is going up and down. Riverdale is idled. Cleveland's blast furnace is down and its rolling mills reduced because they have to bring in slabs..."

In December, the union consented to the reduced work week as part of a larger agreement that avoided the involuntary layoffs of 2,444 workers. The company, the world's largest steelmaker, also has kept its Northwest Indiana plants in Indiana Harbor operating, though also with layoffs and reduced operating levels.

"The market is worse than ever," Gipson said. "But this is an excellent time to make repairs and to do a lot of training. The company is working with us. You do the best you can to take a bad situation and turn it into a good thing."

The December Institute of Supply Management survey showed the destocking trend, which began several months ago, is continuing as companies trim inventories to get through the initial phases of "what is turning out to be a very meaningful economic slowdown," said Chicago steel analyst Michelle Applebaum Friday.

"While 31 percent of respondents said inventory levels were less than a single month on hand, up from 19 percent in November, 62 percent still described -- with words -- their own inventory levels as 'too high' when compared with demand," she said in her Steel Market Intelligence newsletter.