U.S. Steel to lay off 200 workers in Michigan

Aug. 20 (UPI) -- U.S. Steel has said it plans to lay off as many as 200 plant workers in Michigan by the end of next month.

The layoffs are temporary, but the company said in a filing with the state they could last more than six months. The Aug. 1 filing came two months after U.S. Steel announced plans to idle two blast furnaces at its Great Lakes mill in southeastern Michigan and Gary Works plant in Indiana.

The layoffs affect employees in "nearly every area of the facility from blast furnace operations through finishing operations," the company said in a statement to CNN.

Some layoffs began in July and others were expected to go into effect through September.

Shares of U.S. Steel had fallen 1 percent by midday Tuesday after news of the layoffs, and are down more than 30 percent since the beginning of the year.

President Donald Trump's 25 percent tariff on steel imports helped the industry last year, but prices dropped again after some previously idled steel mills became operational again and supplies rose.