Republic Steel to idle steelmaking in Canton

CANTON − Republic Steel will "indefinitely idle" steelmaking operations in Canton and Lackawanna, New York, ending leaded steel production in the United States.

About 500 steelworkers will be furloughed indefinitely, parent company Grupo Simec said Thursday. Republic Steel, which is headquartered in Canton, is a subsidiary of the Mexican company. They are leading suppliers of special bar quality steel (SBQ) and the only producers of leaded steel in North America.

Jaime Vigil, a Republic Steel board member and executive advisor, said Grupo Simec exhausted all other options before deciding to idle operations.

“We’re facing an extremely challenging SBQ market in the U.S., with competitive market pricing and decreased demand,” he said in a prepared statement. “At the same time, we’ve had to deal with increasing input costs on all raw materials, consumables, and labor, all as a result of the inflationary environment in the U.S. over the past year.”

Grupo Simec stated that U.S. customers will be served without interruption by its steel mill in Tlaxcala, Mexico.

The Canton plant at 2633 Eighth St NE has been the subject of environmental concerns from area residents and ongoing Ohio and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency enforcement. Republic Steel has operated under a court order since July 2021 related to the amount of lead released into the air and has been in recent settlement discussions with the state.

Grupo Simec said that the company invested $10 million in the Canton facility over the past several years to comply with environmental regulations, particularly the National Ambient Air Quality Standards for lead.

"Although Republic Steel has, for the past two years, remained in strict compliance with the National Ambient Air Quality Standards for the production of leaded steel, ensuring future environmental compliance while producing steel in facilities that are up to 125 years old proved to be too challenging," according to the company's announcement. "As a result, Grupo Simec felt it would be most environmentally responsible to do so at its new, state-of-the-art mill in Tlaxcala."

Vigil said the move is the only way reliably to supply steel products at a competitive price point. He thanked the U.S. steelworkers for their contributions.

"Republic Steel employees are hard-working and dedicated," he said in the prepared statement. "Their roots date back to the late 1800s. They’re an important reason this company has been a leader in this industry for so long."

Republic Steel also has operations in Massillon and Lorain. Messages to the company seeking clarification about what would happen with those facilities were not immediately returned.

The company first idled the Lorain rolling mill in 2016. After a brief restart in 2018, Republic Steel operated the plant from June 2021 to March 2022 before closing again, said Andy Ramos, president of United Steelworkers Local 1104.

“We’ve been in this idle status since," he said.

Announcement surprises city, steelworkers

United Steelworkers Local 1200 — which represents about 185 workers at the Canton steel mill — and the city of Canton reported receiving no notice of the shutdown.

“Our contract reads that they were supposed to give us a 90-day notice, and they didn’t do that," union President Todd Fitzgibbon said.

Grupo Simec purchased Republic Steel in 2005. Fitzgibbon, who has worked at Republic Steel for 27 years, said it's been a "miserable, terrible company to work for" ever since and plagued with environmental and operational problems.

The union contract requires employees to receive shutdown benefits. Fitzgibbon said the company avoids that by calling it a temporary shutdown and employees were told "one lie after another" about returning to work after a training class in late July.

“I don’t know what else to say other than the company continues to lie, not only to the employees but to the union and to the public," Fitzgibbon said.

Christopher Hardesty, the city's economic development director, said the company has not approached Canton for any type of business assistance. He said the city’s limited interaction with the company has been through Canton City Public Health’s enforcement of the EPA’s sanctions against Republic Steel for exceeding air pollution standards.

“This is quite surprising that it’s gone from seemingly functional to now stopping their operations,” said Hardesty, who said the city has yet to receive any formal communication from Republic Steel about the idling of its Canton operations.

Hardesty plans to reach out to the company in hopes of helping the affected Canton employees find new jobs by connecting them with community workforce partners, such as the Stark Economic Development Board, OhioMeansJobs and Strengthening Stark.

Chamber plans manufacturing job fair

The Canton Regional Chamber of Commerce is planning a job fair to connect the steelworkers with other manufacturing opportunities in the area.

“Republic Steel shutting down is a loss for the community," Chamber President and CEO Dennis Saunier said, adding that the top priority now is helping the furloughed workers find employment.

The Chamber manages the nonprofit Stark County Manufacturing Workforce Development Partnership, which is a member network of more than 60 employers. Barb Bennett, the chamber's vice president of education and workforce, said the existing connections to local manufacturers enable the chamber and its partner agencies to act quickly.

The manufacturing partnership takes surveys about open jobs at its monthly meetings. Bennett said there were 250 available positions as of last month that could include everything from metalworking to entry-level production jobs.

"Based on this situation at Republic, we can pull together a job fair with our local manufacturers to help place the unemployed workers from Republic," she said.

The chamber also has access to a "wide variety of funding" for technical training of unemployed, displaced and incumbent workers, Bennett said. More information will be announced about the job fair and other opportunities as details are finalized.

Reach Kelly at 330-580-8323 or kelly.byer@cantonrep.comOn Twitter: @kbyerREP

Reporter Kelli Weir contributed to this report.