U.S. Steel explosion poses early test for new owner Nippon Steel
AZUSA KAWAKAMI
August 16, 2025 00:44 JST
NEW YORK -- This week's fatal explosion at a U.S. Steel facility is testing Nippon Steel's management two months after it acquired the company, bringing the risk of costs increases on top of $11 billion in planned American investments over the next few years.
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Kyodo News
2 hours ago
- Kyodo News
Fatal explosion at U.S. Steel's plant raises questions about its future, despite heavy investment
HARRISBURG, Pa. - The fatal explosion last week at U.S. Steel's Pittsburgh-area coal-processing plant has revived debate about its future just as the iconic American company was emerging from a long period of uncertainty. The fortunes of steelmaking in the U.S. — along with profits, share prices and steel prices — have been buoyed by years of friendly administrations in Washington that slapped tariffs on foreign imports and bolstered the industry's anti-competitive trade cases against China. Most recently, President Donald Trump's administration postponed new hazardous air pollution requirements for the nation's roughly dozen coke plants, like Clairton, and he approved U.S. Steel's nearly $15 billion acquisition by Japanese steelmaker Nippon Steel. Nippon Steel's promised infusion of cash has brought vows that steelmaking will continue in the Mon Valley, a river valley south of Pittsburgh long synonymous with steelmaking. 'We're investing money here. And we wouldn't have done the deal with Nippon Steel if we weren't absolutely sure that we were going to have an enduring future here in the Mon Valley," David Burritt, U.S. Steel's CEO, told a news conference the day after the explosion. 'You can count on this facility to be around for a long, long time.' Will the explosion change anything? The explosion killed two workers and hospitalized 10 with a blast so powerful that it took hours to find two missing workers beneath charred wreckage and rubble. The cause is under investigation. The plant is considered the largest coking operation in North America and, along with a blast furnace and finishing mill up the Monongahela River, is one of a handful of integrated steelmaking operations left in the U.S. The explosion now could test Nippon Steel's resolve in propping up the nearly 110-year-old Clairton plant, or at least force it to spend more than it had anticipated. Nippon Steel didn't respond to a question as to whether the explosion will change its approach to the plant. Rather, a spokesperson for the company said its 'commitment to the Mon Valley remains strong' and that it sent 'technical experts to work with the local teams in the Clairton Plant, and to provide our full support.' Meanwhile, Burritt said he had talked to top Nippon Steel officials after the explosion and that 'this facility and the Mon Valley are here to stay.' U.S. Steel officials maintain that safety is their top priority and that they spend $100 million a year on environmental compliance at Clairton alone. However, repairing Clairton could be expensive, an investigation into the explosion could turn up more problems, and an official from the United Steelworkers union said it's a constant struggle to get U.S. Steel to invest in its plants. Besides that, production at the facility could be affected for some time. The plant has six batteries of ovens and two — where the explosion occurred — were damaged. Two others are on a reduced production schedule because of the explosion. There is no timeline to get the damaged batteries running again, U.S. Steel said. Accidents are nothing new at Clairton Accidents are nothing new at Clairton, which heats coal to high temperatures to make coke, a key component in steelmaking, and produces combustible gases as byproducts. An explosion in February injured two workers. Even as Nippon Steel was closing the deal in June, a breakdown at the plant dealt three days of a rotten egg odor into the air around it from elevated hydrogen sulfide emissions, the environmental group GASP reported. The Breathe Project, a public health organization, said U.S. Steel has been forced to pay $57 million in fines and settlements since Jan. 1, 2020, for problems at the Clairton plant. A lawsuit over a Christmas Eve fire at the Clairton plant in 2018 that saturated the area's air for weeks with sulfur dioxide produced a withering assessment of conditions there. An engineer for the environmental groups that sued wrote that he 'found no indication that U.S. Steel has an effective, comprehensive maintenance program for the Clairton plant.' The Clairton plant, he wrote, is "inherently dangerous because of the combination of its deficient maintenance and its defective design." U.S. Steel settled, agreeing to spend millions on upgrades. Matthew Mehalik, executive director of the Breathe Project, said U.S. Steel has shown more willingness to spend money on fines, lobbying the government and buying back shares to reward shareholders than making its plants safe. Will Clairton be modernized? It's not clear whether Nippon Steel will change Clairton. Central to Trump's approval of the acquisition was Nippon Steel's promises to invest $11 billion into U.S. Steel's aging plants and to give the federal government a say in decisions involving domestic steel production, including plant closings. But much of the $2.2 billion that Nippon Steel has earmarked for the Mon Valley plants is expected to go toward upgrading the finishing mill, or building a new one. For years before the acquisition, U.S. Steel had signaled that the Mon Valley was on the chopping block. That left workers there uncertain whether they'd have jobs in a couple years and whispering that U.S. Steel couldn't fill openings because nobody believed the jobs would exist much longer. Relics of steelmaking's past In many ways, U.S. Steel's Mon Valley plants are relics of steelmaking's past. In the early 1970s, U.S. steel production led the world and was at an all-time high, thanks to 62 coke plants that fed 141 blast furnaces. Nobody in the U.S. has opened a new blast furnace in decades, as foreign competition devastated the American steel industry and coal fell out of favor. Now, China is dominant in steel and heavily invested in coal-based steelmaking. In the U.S., there are barely a dozen coke plants and blast furnaces left, as the country's steelmaking has shifted to cheaper electric arc furnaces that use electricity, not coal. Blast furnaces won't entirely go away, analysts say, since they produce metals that are preferred by automakers, appliance makers and oil and gas exploration firms. Still, Christopher Briem, an economist at the University of Pittsburgh's Center for Social and Urban Research, questioned whether the Clairton plant really will survive much longer, given its age and condition. It could be particularly vulnerable if the economy slides into recession or the fundamentals of the American steel market shift, he said. 'I'm not quite sure it's all set in stone as people believe,' Briem said. 'If the market does not bode well for U.S. Steel, for American steel, is Nippon Steel really going to keep these things?'
Yomiuri Shimbun
5 hours ago
- Yomiuri Shimbun
Air Canada Suspends Restart Plans after Flight Attendants Union Defies Return to Work Order
TORONTO (AP) — Air Canada said it suspended plans to restart operations on Sunday after the union representing 10,000 flight attendants said it will defy a return to work order. The strike was already affecting about 130,000 travelers around the world per day during the peak summer travel season. The Canada Industrial Relations Board ordered airline staff back to work by 2 p.m. Sunday after the government intervened and Air Canada said it planned to resume flights Sunday evening. Canada's largest airline now says it will resume flights Monday evening. Air Canada said in a statement that the union 'illegally directed its flight attendant members to defy a direction from the Canadian Industrial Relations Board.' 'Our members are not going back to work,' Canadian Union of Public Employees national president Mark Hancock said outside Toronto's Pearson International Airport. 'We are saying no.' Hancock ripped up a copy of the back-to-work order outside the airport's departures terminal where union members were picketing Sunday morning. He said they won't return Tuesday either. Flight attendants chanted 'Don't blame me, blame AC' outside Pearson. 'Like many Canadians, the Minister is monitoring this situation closely. The Canada Industrial Relations Board is an independent tribunal,' Jennifer Kozelj, a spokeswoman for Federal Jobs Minister Patty Hajdu said in a emailed statement. Hancock said the 'whole process has been unfair' and said the union will challenge what it called an unconstitutional order. Less than 12 hours after workers walked off the job,)Hajdu ordered the 10,000 flight attendants back to work, saying now is not the time to take risks with the economy and noting the unprecedented tariffs the U.S. has imposed on Canada. Hajdu referred the work stoppage to the Canada Industrial Relations Board. The airline said the CIRB has extended the term of the existing collective agreement until a new one is determined by the arbitrator. The shutdown of Canada's largest airline early Saturday was impacting about 130,000 people a day. Air Canada operates around 700 flights per day. Tourist Mel Durston from southern England was trying to make the most of sightseeing in Canada. But she said she doesn't have a way to continue her journey. 'We wanted to go see the Rockies, but we might not get there because of this,' Durston said. 'We might have to head straight back.' James Hart and Zahara Virani were visiting Toronto from Calgary, Alberta for what they thought would be a fun weekend. But they ended up paying $2,600 Canadian ($1,880) to fly with another airline on a later day after their Air Canada flight got canceled. 'It's a little frustrating and stressful, but at the same time, I don't blame the flight attendants at all,' Virani said. 'What they're asking for is not unreasonable whatsoever.' Flight attendants walked off the job around 1 a.m. EDT on Saturday. Around the same time, Air Canada said it would begin locking flight attendants out of airports. The bitter contract fight escalated Friday as the union turned down Air Canada's prior request to enter into government-directed arbitration, which allows a third-party mediator to decide the terms of a new contract. Last year, the government forced the country's two major railroads into arbitration with their labor union during a work stoppage. The union for the rail workers is suing, arguing the government is removing a union's leverage in negotiations. Hajdu maintained that her Liberal government is not anti-union, saying it is clear the two sides are at an impasse. Passengers whose flights are impacted will be eligible to request a full refund on the airline's website or mobile app, according to Air Canada. The airline said it would also offer alternative travel options through other Canadian and foreign airlines when possible. Still, it warned that it could not guarantee immediate rebooking because flights on other airlines are already full 'due to the summer travel peak.' Air Canada and CUPE have been in contract talks for about eight months, but they have yet to reach a tentative deal. Both sides have said they remain far apart on the issue of pay and the unpaid work flight attendants do when planes aren't in the air. The airline's latest offer included a 38% increase in total compensation, including benefits and pensions, over four years, that it said 'would have made our flight attendants the best compensated in Canada.' But the union pushed back, saying the proposed 8% raise in the first year didn't go far enough because of inflation.
Yomiuri Shimbun
5 hours ago
- Yomiuri Shimbun
US Seeks Shipbuilding Expertise from South Korea and Japan to Counter China
WASHINGTON (AP) — American lawmakers are using a trip to South Korea and Japan to explore how the United States can tap those allies' shipbuilding expertise and capacity to help boost its own capabilities, which are dwarfed by those of China. Sens. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., and Andy Kim, D-N.J., who are scheduled to land in Seoul on Sunday before traveling to Japan, plan to meet top shipbuilders from the world's second- and third-largest shipbuilding countries. The senators want to examine the possibilities of forming joint ventures to construct and repair noncombatant vessels for the U.S. Navy in the Indo-Pacific and bring investments to American shipyards. 'We already have fewer capacity now than we did during Operation Iraqi Freedom' in 2003, Duckworth told The Associated Press. 'We have to rebuild the capacity. At the same time, what capacity we have is aging and breaking down and taking longer and more expensive to fix.' Their trip comes as President Donald Trump demands a plan to revive U.S. shipyards and engage foreign partners. The Pentagon is seeking $47 billion for shipbuilding in its annual budget. The urgency stems from the fact that Washington severely lags behind China in building naval ships, a situation raising alarms among policymakers who worry the maritime balance of power could shift to China, now the world's No. 1 shipbuilder. Duckworth, who serves on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said she hopes the trip could lead to joint ventures among the U.S. military, American companies and foreign partners to build auxiliary vessels for the Navy and small boats for the Army. Another possibility is repairing U.S. ships in the Indo-Pacific region. 'If we have to bring ships all the way back to the United States … to wait two years to be fixed, that doesn't help the situation,' Duckworth said. The discussions, she said, will focus on auxiliary vessels, which are noncombatant ships such as fueling and cargo vessels that support naval and military operations. The Navy's auxiliary fleet is aging and insufficient in numbers, she said. The U.S. commercial shipbuilding accounted for 0.1% of global capacity in 2024, while China produced 53%, followed by South Korea and Japan, according to a report by the Center for Strategic and International Studies. A Navy review from April 2024 found that many of its major shipbuilding programs were one year to three years behind schedule. During the trip, the senators are expected to meet representatives from major shipbuilders in the region. South Korea and the U.S. are already making progress on shipbuilding cooperation. In March, Hanwha Ocean completed maintenance work for a 41,000-ton U.S. Navy dry cargo and ammunition ship in South Korea. The overhaul of USNS Wally Schirra was the Korean company's first project after it secured a repair agreement with the U.S. Navy in July 2024. Hanwha Group last year acquired Philly Shipyard in Philadelphia, which builds large merchant mariners, part of the reserve auxiliary fleet. Earlier this month, South Korea proposed to invest $150 billion in the U.S. shipbuilding industry to support Trump's 'Make American Shipbuilding Great Again' initiative as part of its tariffs talk with the White House. Duckworth said she had earlier conversations with Hyundai Heavy Industries 'about them actually buying into U.S. shipyards on U.S. soil'. This month, China formed the world's biggest shipbuilding company by merging two state-owned shipbuilders. The combined entity China State Shipbuilding Corporation produces Chinese navy's combat vessels from aircraft carriers to nuclear submarines. It commands 21.5% of global shipbuilding market.
