When does the CEO of US Steel think they can resume their objective of upgrading their coke plant?
.S. Steel Chairman and CEO John P. Surma yesterday declined to disclose a date for resuming work on a $1 billion project at its coke plant in Clairton, telling industry officials that preserving cash during the recession remains a priority. Mr. Surma said the project, announced in November 2007, remained part of the steel producer’s long-term plans. It would have replaced batteries of ovens that make coke, a fuel used in blast furnaces, with more efficient, environmentally friendly equipment. Labeled the largest construction project in the region since the building of Pittsburgh International Airport in the 1990s, the project was expected to create more than 600 construction jobs. U.S. Steel suspended work on it in April, saying then that it could not say when industry conditions would improve enough to resume work. Mr. Surma made the remarks at a conference of coke industry officials at the Hilton Pittsburgh, Downtown. U.S. Steel reported a first-half loss of $831 million. It is expec
U.S. Steel Corp.’s decision to delay its much-touted plan to invest $1.1 billion in new coke batteries and refurbish older ones at its Clairton Works won’t disrupt efforts to improve air quality in the region, officials said Thursday. That’s because U.S. Steel has idled three of the plant’s 12 batteries and four more are expected to be idled soon. Those actions, blamed on the global recession, will bring the layoff of about 230, or 20 percent of the plant’s 1,155 workers, a union official said yesterday. While the upgraded coke-making technology was expected to bring significant air pollution reductions, health officials said they expect the downturn in production to balance out the loss of better pollution controls. “In the short term, there may actually be some improvement in air quality because of the reduced operations at the Clairton Coke Works,” said Guillermo Cole, spokesman for the Allegheny County Health Department. “This means there will be a corresponding decrease in emissio
U.S. Steel Chairman and CEO John P. Surma yesterday declined to disclose a date for resuming work on a $1 billion project at its coke plant in Clairton, telling industry officials that preserving cash during the recession remains a priority. Mr. Surma said the project, announced in November 2007, remained part of the steel producer’s long-term plans. It would have replaced batteries of ovens that make coke, a fuel used in blast furnaces, with more efficient, environmentally friendly equipment. Labeled the largest construction project in the region since the building of Pittsburgh International Airport in the 1990s, the project was expected to create more than 600 construction jobs. U.S. Steel suspended work on it in April, saying then that it could not say when industry conditions would improve enough to resume work. Sources: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09288/1005595-28.
