Pittsburgh-based steel producer United States Steel Corp. has announced it will adjust its hot strip mill operating configuration to support a previously announced asset revitalization process. The company will begin processing slabs on the currently idled hot strip mill at Granite City Works in Granite City, Ill., in mid-February 2017. U. S. Steel intends to source slabs from its own domestic facilities. 

The company plans to take periodic outages at Gary Works (Gary, Ind.), Great Lakes Works (Detroit), and Mon Valley Works (Pittsburgh) to improve the capabilities and reliability of the hot strip mills. 

The Granite City Works blast furnaces and steelmaking facilities were idled in December 2015 and the hot strip mill was idled in January 2016 in response to challenging global market conditions. The blast furnaces and steelmaking facilities will remain idled. The pickling, cold mill, and finishing lines at Granite City Works will continue to operate.