U.S. Steel preparing blast furnace

U.S. Steel is heating up its Hamilton blast furnace, nearly nine months after it was shut down due to slumping orders.

The firm has performed extensive maintenance and applied heat to the furnace this week -  a final step before ironmaking begins, said Rolf Gerstenberger, president of the United Steelworkers union at the plant.

Despite these steps, Gerstenberger remains cautious about when steelmaking will resume at the plant.

“When they put coke and iron ore in the furnace, that’s when we’ll really be running again,” he said. “Until then, they could still change their minds.”

The union has been given no timeline for when steelmaking will begin, he added.

U.S. Steel is being sued by the Canadian government over the shutdown of the former Stelco - a move Industry Minister Tony Clement claims violated commitments made by U.S. Steel when it bought Stelco in 2007.

The Pittsburgh steelmaker has since locked out 1,000 workers at its Lake Erie plant in Nanticoke after labour talks hit an impasse.