ArcelorMittal closing its Cleveland steel plant

ArcelorMittal closing Cleveland Plant. ArcelorMittal has announced that it is closing its Cleveland steel plant until market conditions in the steel industry improves. The decision to shutter the plant follows the company’s fourth quarter earnings report, made last month. During that report the company said that it planned on continuing to reduce its global production to a level of about 45 percent. According to a spokesperson, ArcelorMittal has notified the United Steelworkers of the indefinite layoff of an unspecified number of employees at the Cleveland facility. "We are preparing to issue a WARN notice to all required stakeholders - in accordance with the Workers Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act." The company will keep about 250 employees to provide basic fire watch and maintain the water treatment, boiler and environmental systems. "This was a difficult decision to make, but the company is being forced to respond to the extraordinary economic environment we are facing. We will be carefully monitoring the situation, and we look forward to many of our employees returning to work as soon as it is warranted by market conditions," the spokesperson noted.