After reporting a first quarter loss of $391 million in response to the coronavirus pandemic, US Steel plans to idle Blast Furnace No. 6 at Gary Works and temporarily lay off up to 6,500 employees nationwide, including thousands of jobs in Northwest Indiana.
The steelmaker headquartered in Pittsburgh, one of the largest employers in the Calumet area, made an 8-K Filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission Thursday.
US Steel said it intended to issue a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notice that it would temporarily cut up to 6,500 workers, or over a third of the company's total North American headcount of 16,000. The company said it currently sees the actual number of workers affected to be near 2,700.
Moves by U.S. Steel further demonstrate how the virus turns the heavily-touted "blue-collar boom" of US President Donald Trump into a bust as he prepares for the November polls. Analysts see an unprecedented economic recession in the coming months, with millions of workers at risk of becoming jobless.
The company had 27,500 employees on the rolls as of 31 Dec. Meghan Cox, a spokeswoman for the firm, disclosed separately that the manufacturer would let go another 1,000 in Europe, speeding up the timetable of previously planned cuts as a result of the global health crisis.
On Thursday, US Steel announced its earnings for the first quarter. The company will be conducting its earnings call before the markets opened on Friday. The company posted a quarterly revenue of $2.75 billion, compared with $3.50 billion in the first quarter last year.
During this time, the adjusted EBITDA for US Steel dropped from $285 million to $64 million. Results for the first quarter were higher than expectations from analysts and their guidance. The organization also reported a dividend of $0.01 per share.
In reaction to the COVID-19 crisis, the corporation is implementing dramatic funding cuts that have shut down car factories and devastated oil firms - some of its main clients - nationwide.
The struggling steel manufacturer, which was hurting as the coronavirus crisis triggered demand to collapse for steel, reported a first quarter loss of $391 million, or $2.30 per share. That compares to a $54 or 31 cents profit per share in the first three months last year.
Although the pace of joblessness-benefit filings has slowed down in the past few weeks, job losses are far from over and are forced to take years to fully rebound. And, there could be more cuts in store as states face serious crunches in the budget.
