U.S. Steel to idle three blast furnaces, hurt by lower prices and soft demand

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

BUSINESS NEWS JUNE 18, 2019 / 9:29 PM / UPDATED 22 MINUTES AGO

U.S. Steel to idle three blast furnaces, hurt by lower prices and soft demand

(Reuters) - United States Steel Corp on Tuesday said it would idle two blast furnaces in the United States and a third in Europe, as lower steel prices and softening demand led the steel producer to forecast current-quarter earnings below the Wall Street estimates.

Steel producers in the United States have brought old capacity online after President Donald Trump’s imposed tariffs on imported steel from countries including China, resulting in a surplus supply of steel at a time when manufacturing demand has weakened, suppressing prices.

U.S. Steel said it will also idle one of its blast furnaces in Europe where increasing levels of imports and higher raw material costs are hurting the company’s operations.

“We are idling two blast furnaces in the United States and one blast furnace in Europe to better align our global production with our order book,” U.S. Steel said in a statement.

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Read more: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-u-s-steel-facility/u-s-steel-to-idle-three-blast-furnaces-hurt-by-lower-prices-and-soft-demand-idUSKCN1TK03J

[Wellstone ruled]

1. Another Promise made Promise kept,yah right.

You have a Tariff to protect you and you can not compete. Please tell me you jest?

Them lies just keep on keeping on. Wow,Wilbur,you F---d up once again.

Most of us could see this coming a long time ago. The Steel Wholesalers ramped up their purchases of Canadian Steel when word leaked out.

[Farmer-Rick]

2. Yeah tariffs usually only work if you are Not in a trade war.

But maybe in 6 years the industry will have realigned enough for tariffs to be affective. Who knows. We are now in wildcat economics territory.