United States Steel said it plans to end steel production at its Granite City, Ill., mill and use the plant to produce pig iron.
Pig iron is ore reduced to molten iron in a coal-heated blast furnace. When it Is cooled, it can be mixed with scrap and melted into new steel in electric furnaces. Pig iron supplies have tightened since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine ended shipments from the two countries, which have been the world’s biggest sellers of pig iron.