As was announced in early December, U.S. Steel has restarted Blast Furnace B at its Granite City plant. The process began on Saturday. There is no long-term guarantees that the mill will stay open, but union membership sees this as a way to prove their worth to the new owners of the mill.
Back in early December, the President and CEO of U.S. Steel released a statement saying they made the decision after analyzing customer demand over the last several months. It’s been a tumultuous couple of years for the facility. In 2023, U.S. Steel announced plans to idle the blast furnace and “indefinitely” idle operations there. In September of 2025, plans to stop slab production at Granite City Works were reversed.
With Saturday’s restart, 1,110 employees are back to work at the mill, and the company is still hiring. Once fully staffed, that number will be closer to 1,300…