Government conditions help to U.S. Steel by investments in improving competitiveness

The government’s approach to the Košice-based steel mill U.S. Steel will depend on its investments in improving competitiveness, for instance into production of steel for the automotive sector, said Economy Minister Richard Sulík (SaS) after meeting its management. At present, the mill does not supply any of the four Slovak car plants. Sulík suggested that the government could help with energy prices. Last year, the mill lost €63m following a €127m net profit for 2018. Last summer, it shut down one of its three blast furnaces, sold its radiator plant, and announced 2,500 redundancies. It maintains it can’t compete with Chinese steel mills without state help.

(sme.sk)