he owner of the steel mill in Georgetown said it is closing the plant, leaving 226 workers without jobs.
ArcelorMittal announced in a news release Thursday that the shutdown will be completed in the third quarter of the year.
"This means taking care of home, taking care of family, but you know, now, we just gotta learn to take one day at a time," said Leo Young, who has worked at the plant on and off for about 18 years. He was trying to sleep before his night shift when he was awoken by the news.
"I couldn't get back to sleep, because really this is something like our livelihood," said Young.
The plant is the company's main producer of wire rod in the United States and the company said it could no longer complete with foreign steel wire imports that it says are being unfairly traded domestically.
The company said imported wire rod now makes up a third of the domestic market.
The Georgetown plant was closed in 2009 during the Great Recession. It was brought back online two years later under a revised labor agreement.
Now, it will close for good.
In a press release Thursday, P.S. Venkat, the CEO of the Luxembourg-based company that employees 220,000 people in 60 countries said:
Despite our joint efforts and a highly productive workforce, the facility has incurred significant losses since the restart due to high input costs and imports. Georgetown is a very productive plant, making 300,000 tons of product per year with fewer than 200 full-time ArcelorMittal employees -- that's about 1,500 tons per worker. Imports have really been damaging to the Georgetown facility, and the business overall.
Still, workers like Young didn't expect it to happen so soon.
"Nobody wants this, but we knew it was coming, just not this fast," added Young.
The Georgetown County Economic Development Department issued the following statement on the closing of the steel mill:
We are saddened by the news today that ArcelorMittal will be closing its Georgetown plant. We will work with ArcelorMittal and the Department of Employment and Workforce to create a transition plan for impacted employees. Many of these employees have considerable experience and very sought-after skill sets. Even prior to today's announcement, we have been working with a number of our existing industries on expansion plans. These expansions all include additional jobs, and many of the impacted ArcelorMittal employees have the skills and experience to provide an immediate benefit to our other industries. We will make every effort to connect these employees with our industries.
Source: AP
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