Tracking Coal through the Process of Steel Making

By T.L. HEADLEY, communications director
American Coal Council
GRANITE CITY, IL — Granite City  is the quintessential American small town. It has a population of about 26,000 and for more than 100 years, its economy has largely been dependent on the local U.S. Steel manufacturing plant. For most of that time the community lived with the assurance that comes with an economy centered on basic industry.
That assurance was shaken three years ago when the steel plant laid off most of the 2,000 workers, leaving only a small skeleton crew. The town was shaken at its core. Rosemarie Brown, executive director of the Chamber of Commerce of Southwestern Madison County, said the closure was “devastating.”
“The Granite City Works is vital to the community,” Brown said. “In fact, the town was founded around the plant in 1894.” Brown said that in the year after the plant effectively shut down, the Chamber lost 26 member companies.
All that changed when the new Trump administration shifted U.S. trade policy and began taking actions to support the domestic steel industry. Earlier this year, U.S. Steel announced it was restarting both furnaces at the Granite City plant and began recalling laid-off workers. Approximately 800 have returned to work in just the past few months with just one furnace online. More will be needed when the second furnace goes back into production later this year.

Tracking Coal through the Process of Steel Making