U.S. Steel Corp. to idle McKeesport's Tubular Products plant

Three years after it resumed operation of the last vestige of the old National Tube Works, U.S. Steel is pulling the plug on pipemaking in McKeesport.

McKeesport Mayor Michael Cherepko said he is “extremely disappointed” with U.S. Steel Corp.'s announcement on Monday that it will idle indefinitely its McKeesport Tubular Operations effective in early August.

“I think it is devastating for the entire Mon Valley region,” the mayor said shortly after receiving word about the shutdown of plants in McKeesport and Bellville, Texas, two of 10 plants in the Pittsburgh-based steelmaker's Tubular Products division.

The announcement came 60 days before the idling of the two plants because of requirements in the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification or WARN Act. It is a cost-cutting move in line with a company initiative called the Carnegie Way, which U.S. Steel previously said will yield $290 million in benefits this year.

“U.S. Steel remains fully committed to the tubular products business,” company president and CEO Mario Longhi said. “While these are difficult decisions, they are necessary in order to return our company to sustainable profitability and position us for future growth.”

A company spokeswoman said the effect of “unfairly traded tubular products imported into the United States” is a factor in those decisions.

“For months, our union has warned the Department of Commerce, the U.S. Trade Representative, the public and others that a flood of illegally subsidized and unfairly traded oil country tubular goods poses a significant and immediate threat to American steel companies and the jobs of our members,” United Steelworkers president Leo W. Gerard said.

U.S. Steel said its decision affects 45 management personnel at the two plants as well as 215 rank-and-file workers. Those plants in turn were part of a division that continues to operate plants in Alabama, Arkansas, Ohio and Texas that employ approximately 2,900 workers.

U.S. Steel declined to give a breakdown between the two plants it plans to idle but a United Steelworkers spokesman said there are 157 rank-and-file employees in McKeesport, members of that union's Local 5852. Local president Mark A. Fronczek could not be reached for comment and workers were reluctant to talk about it.

“Plant's shutting down, I'm out of a job,” one man said as he waved away a reporter and got in his truck.

“We're done at the end of July,” said another employee as he drove away from the plant across the CSX tracks from downtown McKeesport.

“I'm kind of shocked,” said Willie Hanks of Wilkinsburg, a truck driver for PI&I Motor Express of Sharon, which carries steel coils from U.S. Steel's Mon Valley Works Irvin Plant in West Mifflin to the McKeesport plant. “They told us that we probably have another month.”

The announcement has prompted bipartisan response of the sort that has been shown before on the issue of steel imports. The industry has complained about unfair competition from foreign companies, accusing government-backed overseas producers of dumping excess steel on the market at below cost.

“Unfortunately, the international trade laws are not being enforced to the level that they should be,” said Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald.

“I have pushed the (Obama) Administration to get tough to prevent the dumping of artificially priced products onto the U.S. market,” said U.S. Sen. Bob Casey Jr., D-Scranton. “(Monday's) announcement is an unfortunate reminder that we must redouble our efforts to crack down on cheating. We cannot allow foreign competitors to undercut our companies by evading international trade rules.”

“More than 200 steelworkers are out of a job because this Administration refuses to enforce the law and put an end to trade crimes committed by foreign countries like China and Korea,” said Congressional Steel Caucus chairman Rep. Tim Murphy, R-Upper St. Clair. “Since August, the Congressional Steel Caucus has sounded the alarm in hearings, in letters to the Administration, and most recently, at a huge rally on the banks of the Monongahela River, that the domestic steel industry is under siege from unfairly traded tubular imports.”

The Alliance for American Manufacturing, U.S. Steel and the United Steelworkers at U.S. Steel's research and technology center in Munhall rallied to “save our steel jobs” on May 19. Fronczek and most McKeesport workers were at the rally. There he said the plant already suffered because of unfair imports.

Still, he told the rally, “McKeesport Tubular has begun to turn the corner. McKeesport Tubular is once again producing world-class pipe.”

“The news of U.S. Steel's plans to idle the McKeesport plant is very disheartening,” said state Sen. James Brewster, D-McKeesport, who introduced Cherepko and other mayors at the Munhall rally. “The hardworking men and woman of the Mon Valley have done great work for decades at this mill.“

“My heart goes out to those workers and their families,” U.S. Rep. Mike Doyle, D-Forest Hills, said. “I promise them that I will do everything in my power to get the McKeesport facility back up and running.”

While McKeesport's plant is part of a different U.S. Steel division from the three Mon Valley Works plants, steel made at the Edgar Thomson Plant in Braddock with coke from the Clairton Plant is finished at Irvin Plant to be processed into pipe at the electric resistance weld mill that was known as Camp-Hill Corp. from December 1987 until May 2011.

Camp-Hill in turn took over the last remnant of a complex begun with the National Tube Works in 1872 and ended with the shutdown of McKeesport U.S. Steel operations in 1987.

While some buildings of that complex remain there to this day, the property is known as Regional Industrial Development Corp. of Southwestern Pennsylvania's Riverplace Industrial Center of McKeesport.

Maury Burgwin, president of the Mon Yough Area Chamber of Commerce in McKeesport, wondered what the ripple effect would be from U.S. Steel's decision, from families of those losing jobs to vendors such as PI&I Express. He thought McKeesport would benefit from drilling activity in nearby Marcellus shale fields.

“It shows the importance of that rally two weeks ago,” Burgwin said.

Bipartisan sentiment was seen as well in offers of aid to those losing their jobs in McKeesport.

“The county will look at programs available,” Fitzgerald said. “There are over 20,000 jobs posted in Western Pennsylvania. There are a lot of options out there now.”

Gov. Tom Corbett said he had directed state Secretary of Labor and Industry Julia K. Hearthway “to take action and deploy our Rapid Response workforce teams to help identify new opportunities for these skilled and loyal employees.”

“My office stands ready to help any worker who is affected by this idling,” said U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Lehigh County, vice chairman of the Senate Steel Caucus. “I will continue fighting for pro-growth, common-sense policies to create jobs and allow Pennsylvania's manufacturers to thrive.”

Trib Total Media business writer John Oravecz contributed to this story. Patrick Cloonan is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. He can be reached at 412-664-9161, ext. 1967, or pcloonan@tribweb.com.