US Steel announces layoffs of 350 employees

US Steel recently said it was laying off about 350 workers in Michigan and Indiana.

In an August 1 letter to the head of the Michigan Workforce Development Agency, the company said it would lay off about 200 workers at its Great Lakes plant due to stove downtime.

"These adjustments are driven by current market conditions and the recent decline in consumer demand for the plant's products," the letter said.

In early September, the company announced that it would lay off about 150 people as a result of idling at its East Chicago plant. An additional 150 workers are expected to be relocated to other locations.

“The indefinite inactivity is due to the consolidation of the company's tin products production from three to two capacities, following a thorough market analysis of our current global competitiveness in light of the high level of low-cost imported tin products entering the United States, the Company said in a letter to the State's Workforce Development Department Indiana.

President Donald Trump has named US Steel as the main beneficiary of his administration's 25 percent tariff on imported steel. The levy, however, boosted production in the United States at a time when global demand was declining, all of which drove prices down. While companies with more efficient installations and electric arc furnaces adapted more easily, US Steel had to close some older blast furnaces. Since the tariffs were announced in March 2018, the country's second-largest steel producer has lost about 70 percent ($ 5.7 billion) of its market capitalization.