Gerdau's North American operations will reportedly halt melting and rolling activities at the company's long steel mill in St. Paul, Minnesota, by the end of June, according to media reports.
Due to the halt, Gerdau will lay off 250 workers, the media report said. Finishing activities will reportedly continue as usual. Gerdau’s Minnesota’s mill has an EAF capacity of 560,000 mt/year.
In a statement to SteelOrbis, Gerdau said laid off employees will continue on the payroll until the end of June. Some others will be relocated to other Gerdau sites.
“The decision to idle part of an operation is never taken lightly, and we regret the impact this will have on our St. Paul workforce,” said Chia Yuan Wang, president of Gerdau Long Steel North America (GLN). “But we believe this is a necessary step to support GLN’s overall competitiveness and sustainability,” Wang added.
Gerdau has six other long steel mills in the US, and three in Canada.