CANTON, Ohio — The owner of Republic Steel says it plans to idle steelmaking operations at its mill in Canton, as well as at its mill in western New York.
As a result of Thursday's announcement from the company's owner, Grupo Simec, about 500 Republic Steel employees will be furloughed indefinitely. 3News' sister station WGRZ in Buffalo reports that 178 of the 500 furloughed workers will come from Lackawanna, N.Y., leaving 322 workers furloughed in Canton.
While the Canton and Lackawanna, New York plants are idled, Republic Steel's U.S. customers will be served via Grupo Simec's "state-of-the-art steel mill" in Tlaxcala, Mexico. Grupo Simec says Republic's U.S. customers will experience no interruption in service.
According to Republic Steel board member and executive advisor, Jaime Vigil, Grupo Simec exhausted every additional potential option besides idling the mills.
"We're facing an extremely challenging SBQ (special bar quality steel) market in the U.S., with competitive market pricing and decreased demand," said Vigil in a statement. "At the same time, we've had to deal with increasing input costs on all raw materials, consumables, and labor, all as a result of the inflationary environment in the U.S. over the past year."
Vigil adds that the company worked hard in recent years to stay compliant with all environmental regulations, particularly the National Ambient Air Quality Standard for leaded steel production. During that time, Republic Steel says it invested approximately $10 million in its Canton facility to maintain compliance. The company admitted that "ensuring future environmental compliance while producing steel in facilities that are up to 125 years old proved to be too challenging."
Republic Steel, which is headquartered in Canton, traces its roots back to 1886, with the establishment of Berger Manufacturing Co. The company operates steelmaking centers that produce steel bars in Canton and value-added rolling and finishing facilities in Canton, Lorain and Massillon; Lackawanna, N.Y.; Gary, Ind.; and Hamilton, Ontario. Republic Steel was acquired by Grupo Simec in 2005.
According to its website, Republic Steel employs more than 2,000 people.
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