Mills cut tin jobs on weak can market, imports

US steelmakers US Steel and ArcelorMittal this week announced layoffs at tin-plating facilities that serve the canned food industry.

ArcelorMittal early this week temporarily laid off 100 workers, or just under 13pc of its workforce, at its tin-plating facility in Weirton, West Virginia. The company had no planned time frame for operations to return to normal, according to the local United Steelworker's (USW) local branch.

US Steel today said it plans to shutter by mid-November its East Chicago, Illinois, tin mill, one of its three US facilities producing tin mill products. The closure impacts 297 employees, but US Steel expects to offer roughly half of the workers positions at its Gary Works and Midwest plants.

Both facilities heavily serve the canned food industry. Pressure from a weaker US corn and tomato harvest coupled with rising competition from imports this year prompted ArcelorMittal's lay-offs, Mark Glyptis, the local USW president, said.

US Steel attributed the cuts to low tin mill capacity utilization rates driven by high levels of "low-priced" imports that account for roughly half of the US market. The imports and market conditions made operating three facilities untenable, US Steel said.

Weirton also produces tin-chrome, galvanized and cold-rolled steel and has a total capacity of approximately 1mn t/yr. It houses a tandem mill, batch anneal, continuous anneal lines, temper mills, side trimmers and electro-tin plating lines. The facility recently had operated its lines at around a 500,000t capacity, according to USW. The union expects the layoffs will be temporary and that workers may return by the end of the year.

US Steel plans to monitor market conditions but would not indicate a time line for the workers to return given uncertainties surrounding market conditions. East Chicago Tin contains a cold mill, temper mill, and electrolytic cleaning and electrotinning lines in order to produce tin plate, black plate, tin-free steel and coated sheet products.

US Steel in June announced it would idle two US blast furnaces because of declining steel prices.