Fatal explosion at U.S. Steels plant raises questions about its future, despite heavy investment

Harrisburg, Pa. (AP) – fatal explosion Last week, US Steel’s Pittsburgh region coal processing facility played a discussion about the future of the iconic American company as a long period of uncertainty.

The wealth of steel construction in the United States, with the stock prices and steel prices, were floated with years of friendship administrations that slaughtered tariffs in foreign imports in Washington and support the industry’s anti-competitive trade cases against China.

Recently, President Donald Trump’s management has postponed the requirements of new dangerous air pollution for the country’s roughly dozen cola plant like Clairton. US Steel’s purchase of approximately $ 15 billion approved By Japanese steel manufacturer Nippon Steel.

Nippon Steel’s promised cash infusion swore with the production of steel production in the south of Pittsburgh, a synonymous river valley in Mon Valley.

US Steel’s CEO David Burritt, in a news conference after the explosion, said, “We’re depositing money here. And we wouldn’t have made a deal with Nippon Steel if we were sure that we had a permanent future in Mon Valley.” “You can rely on this facility to be for a long time.”

The explosion killed two workers and laid the hospital with a strong explosion as 10’uo, which took hours to find two missing workers under the charcoal wreck and rubble. The reason is being investigated.

The facility is considered the largest smelling operation in North America and is one of the production of a handful of integrated steel in the United States, along with a fluffy oven and factories that finish the Monongahela River.

The explosion can now test Nippon Steel’s decision to support the about 110 -year -old Clairton factory, or at least force it to spend more than it predicts.

Nippon Steel did not answer the question of whether the explosion would change its approach to the plant.

Rather, a spokesman for the company, “his commitment to the Mon Valley remains strong” and “technical experts to work with local teams at the Clairton facility and to provide full support” said.

Meanwhile, Burritt said that after the explosion, he talked to the Nippon Steel officials and that he was here to stay here to stay here and the Mon Valley ”.

US steel officials argue that security is the biggest priority and only spend 100 million dollars a year on environmental harmony in Clairton.

However, Clairton’s repair may be expensive, an investigation into the explosion may cause more problems, and an official from the United Steelworks Association said it was a constant struggle for steel’s investment in plants.

In addition, the production in the facility may be affected for a while. The plant was damaged. In the other two production programs due to the explosion.

US Steel said there was no timeline to ensure that damaged batteries work again.

Accidents are not something new in Clairton, which heats coal to high temperatures to make coca, which is an important component in steel making, and produces flammable gases as by -products.

A explosion in February wounded two workers.

Even when Nippon Steel closed the agreement in June, a casting in the plant threw the air from the hydrogen sulfide emissions around it.

Breathe Project, a Public Health Organization, said that he had to pay $ 57 million to pay $ 57 million since January 1, 2020 for problems in the Clairton factory of USA Steel.

In 2018, a Christmas eve in the Clairton facility on the fire, sulfur dioxide for weeks with a case that feeds the air of the region, produced a fading assessment of conditions there.

An engineer for the environmental groups who sued, said, “The US has not found any symptoms that Steel has an effective, comprehensive care program for the Clairton facility”.

Clairton Plant, “due to the combination of missing care and defective design is dangerous by nature” wrote.

The US Steel settled, and agreed to spend millions of upgrades.

Breathe Project General Manager Matthew Mehelak said that US Steel was more entitled to spend money on fines, lobbying the government and rewarding shareholders.

It is not clear whether Nippon Steel will change Clairton.

At the center of Trump’s purchasing approval, in the center of Nippon Steel Promises investment To promise in decisions that include US Steel’s aging facilities, including 11 billion dollars and domestic steel production, including plant closing to the federal government.

However, Nippon Steel is expected to go to raise the last factory or build a new one of $ 2.2 billion of $ 2.2 billion allocated for Mon Valley plants.

Years before buying, US Steel showed that Mon Valley was in the joinery block.

These workers were sure whether there would be work in a few years and that the US steel could not fill the openings because no one believed that things would exist for a long time.

In many ways, US Steel’s PZT valve plants are the remains of the history of steel production.

In the early 1970s, the US steel production led the world and it was at the highest level of all time thanks to 62 Coke plants that feed 141 fluffy furnaces. In the US, no one has built an explosion furnace since then, as foreign competition was devastated by the American steel industry and fell in favor of coal.

Now, China has invested intensively in the production of raids and coal -based steel production. In the United States, the country’s steel production is not coal, but a dozen cola plant and a high oven remained, since it passes into cheaper electric arc furnaces using electricity.

Analysts say that Blast Furnes will not completely disappear because they produce metals preferred by automobile manufacturers, device manufacturers and oil and gas exploration companies.

Nevertheless, Christopher Briem, an economist at the University of Social and Urban Research at the University of Pittsburgh, questioned that he would really survive for a longer period of time considering the age and condition of the Clairton facility. It may be particularly vulnerable that the economy shifts to the stagnation or the foundations of the American steel market.

“I’m not sure that all of them are set on stone, as people believe,” Briem said. “If the market is not good for the US steel, for American Steel, Nippon Steel will really protect these things?”

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