U.S. Steel Great Lakes Works

This article is part of the Global Iron and Steel Tracker, a project of Global Energy Monitor.

Download full dataset

Report an error

Sub-articles:

GEM Wiki Main Page All steel plants Steel decarbonization research List of steel producers World Steel Association Steelmaking technology Green steel projects

U.S. Steel Great Lakes Works, also known as U.S. Steel Ecorse, U.S. Steel Zug Island, is a steel plant in Ecorse, Michigan, United States that operates blast furnace (BF) and basic oxygen furnace (BOF) technology.

Location

The map below shows the exact location of the plant in Ecorse, Michigan, United States:

Loading map...

{"type":"HYBRID","minzoom":false,"maxzoom":false,"types":["ROADMAP","SATELLITE","HYBRID","TERRAIN"],"mappingservice":"googlemaps3","width":"600px","height":"500px","centre":false,"title":"","label":"","icon":"","lines":[],"polygons":[],"circles":[],"rectangles":[],"copycoords":false,"static":false,"visitedicon":"","wmsoverlay":false,"zoom":14,"layers":[],"controls":["pan","zoom","type","scale","streetview","rotate"],"zoomstyle":"DEFAULT","typestyle":"DEFAULT","autoinfowindows":false,"resizable":false,"kmlrezoom":false,"poi":true,"cluster":false,"clustergridsize":60,"clustermaxzoom":20,"clusterzoomonclick":true,"clusteraveragecenter":true,"clusterminsize":2,"imageoverlays":[],"kml":[],"gkml":[],"searchmarkers":"","fullscreen":false,"scrollwheelzoom":false,"locations":[{"text":"","title":"","link":"","lat":42.263181,"lon":-83.121553,"icon":""}]}

• Location: Great Lakes Works, No. 1 Quality Drive, Ecorse, Michigan 48229, United States
• Coordinates (WGS 84): 42.263181, -83.121553 (exact)

Background

U.S. Steel Great Lakes Works began operating in 1902. After over a century of operations, in December 2019, U.S. Steel announced it would be idling the plant in 2020 indefinitely due to weak demand and lower steel prices partly caused by Trump's steel tariff. The move affected close to 1,500 employees. The plant's blast furnaces were idled in the second quarter of 2020, and since then have remained idle.

Environmental Compliance

From 2003 to 2007, U.S. Steel violated the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permits at its Great Lakes Works facility over 170 times. It was fined $300,000 by the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) in 2007 for these violations.

In 2016, the EPA fined U.S. Steel $2.2 million for pollution at several of its facilities, including Great Lakes Works.

In 2019, the facility was fined $380,000 for air pollution.

Worker Safety

From 2013-2018, three people were killed at the plant due to various accidents. In 2018, fifteen workers were injured after a blast accident at the plant. The Great Lakes Works facility has been cited with 20 "serious" safety violations from 2013-2018 and has been fined more than $33,000 in penalties by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).

Plant Details

Table 1: General Plant Details

Start date	Pre-retirement announcement date	Idled date	Workforce size
1902	2020	2021-12	500

Table 2: Ownership and Parent Company Information

Parent company	Parent company PermID	Parent company GEM ID	Owner	Owner company PermID	Owner company GEM ID
United States Steel Corp	4295903049	E100000001319	United States Steel Corp	4295903049	E100000001319

Table 3: Process and Products

Steel product category	Steel products	Steel sector end users	ISO 14001	Main production equipment
semi-finished, finished rolled	sheet, coated	automotive	2021	BF; BOF

Table 4: Plant-level Crude Steel Production Capacities (thousand tonnes per annum)

¹Please see our Frequently Asked Questions page for an explanation of the different capacity operating statuses.

Capacity operating status1	Basic oxygen furnace steelmaking capacity	Nominal crude steel capacity (total)
mothballed	3500	3500

Table 5: Plant-level Crude Iron Production Capacities (thousand tonnes per annum)

¹Please see our Frequently Asked Questions page for an explanation of the different capacity operating statuses.

Capacity operating status1	Blast furnace capacity	Nominal iron capacity (total)
mothballed	2486	2486

Table 6: Upstream Products Production Capacities (thousand tonnes per annum)

Sinter	Coke	Pellets
NF	NF	NF

Table 7: Actual Plant-level Crude Steel Production by Year (thousand tonnes per annum)

Year	BOF production	Other/unknown steel production	Total (all routes)
2019	unknown	unknown	–
2020	unknown	unknown	–
2021	2030	–	2030
2022	–	–	–

Table 8: Actual Plant-level Crude Iron Production by Year (thousand tonnes per annum)

Year	BF production	Total (all routes)
2019	1686	1686
2020	329	329
2021	–	–
2022	–	–

Unit Details

Table 9: Blast Furnace Details

Unit name	Status	Start date	Furnace manufacturer and model	Current size	Current capacity (ttpa)	Decarbonization technology
BF B2	mothballed	–	–	1645.0	1216	unknown
BF D4	mothballed	1955	Paul Wurth Bell-less Top	1666.0	1270	Investments in D4 off gas system to reduce emissions

Table 10: Basic Oxygen Furnace Details

Unit name	Status	Current capacity (ttpa)
unknown BOF (1)	mothballed	1750
unknown BOF (2)	mothballed	1750

Articles and Resources

Additional data

To access additional data, including an interactive map of steel power plants, a downloadable dataset, and summary data, please visit the Global Iron and Steel Tracker on the Global Energy Monitor website.

Resources

• Company website
• Wikipedia