US Steel changes course and will keep processing raw steel at Granite
City plant in Illinois
[September 20, 2025] By
MARC LEVY
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — U.S. Steel reversed course and said Friday that
it will continue processing raw steel at its Granite City Works plant in
Illinois, nixing a decision that had put the plant on track to stop work
in the coming weeks.
U.S. Steel did not explain its reasons for changing course, now barely
three months after Nippon Steel sealed a deal with President Donald
Trump to buy the iconic American steelmaker by giving the government a
say over decisions that affect domestic steel production.
In a brief statement, a U.S. Steel spokesperson said it will continue to
supply raw steel slabs to Granite City “indefinitely.”
Initially, it had said ending processing operations at Granite City
would allow U.S. Steel to “maintain future flexibility.” On Friday, it
said “our goal was to maintain flexibility, and we are pleased to have
found a solution to continue slab consumption at Granite City.”
It did not say what that solution was.
The United Steelworkers union — which had opposed the buyout by Nippon
Steel — accused U.S. Steel of trying to “wiggle out” of commitments that
Nippon Steel made in its deal with the White House.
“But we wouldn’t let it,” the union said in a statement. “We pushed back
on USS’s flimsy excuse that it couldn’t supply slabs to Granite City for
us to process. We reached out to political leaders to remind them that
this was the very situation we foretold.”
It also had planned a rally, it said, “to show management that we don’t
go away without a fight – and we never will.”
U.S. Steel responded that it is in full compliance with Nippon Steel’s
agreement with the White House.
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Rolls of finished steel are seen at the U.S. Steel Granite City
Works facility Thursday, June 28, 2018, in Granite City, Ill. (AP
Photo/Jeff Roberson, File)
 U.S. Steel had said that, even
though it was going to end processing work at Granite City, it
wouldn't lay off any of the roughly 800 workers there or reduce
their pay, at least until 2027, when protections expire for Granite
City in Nippon Steel's agreement with the White House.
Granite City Works makes rolls of sheet steel for the construction,
container, pipe and automotive industries.
The plant is located in southern Illinois, just outside St. Louis.
However, in 2023, U.S. Steel stopped producing raw steel there when
it idled the last operating blast furnace at Granite City. It idled
the other blast furnace there in 2019.
It has similar processing plants at its Mon Valley Works facilities
in Pennsylvania and Gary Works in Indiana.
The pursuit by Nippon Steel for the Pittsburgh-based company was
buffeted by national security concerns, dragging out the transaction
for more than a year after U.S. Steel shareholders approved it.
In the end, Trump changed his stance on invoking national security
grounds to block it after Nippon Steel upped its guarantees of
investment into U.S. Steel facilities and added a so-called “golden
share” provision that gives the federal government a say in certain
decisions.
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