GRANITE CITY – Granite City Works is ready to resume steel production in Granite City, Illinois, restarting one of its two blast furnaces after the Metro East mill has been idle for more than two years, union officials said.
The planned restart by April 1, 2026, is being viewed by union members as “a win and an opportunity to prove their worth to new owners.” The restart marks another chapter for Granite City steelworkers and a community long dependent on the mill’s labor to fuel the local economy.
Craig McKey, president of United Steelworkers Local 1899, said on Friday, March 27, 2026, he believes “as long as the group hits their targets and has a successful startup,” that “things will fall into place.”
Granite City Works began the restart process in December 2025.
“They wanted to have it done by April 1, 2026,” McKey said, adding that the company “is still working out some bugs powering processes back up.”
He said the goal is to operate one furnace at “18 heats a day.”
McKey said the mill’s employment once reached about 1,300 workers a few years back when it was operating at a strong rate, and he believes it could return to that level, though he said he was not sure of the total number currently being hired. He said “400 plus” are already there at the plant.
“I have spent almost 30 years in the mill myself,” McKey said. “This is the third time we have gone through this get call to go back up and almost have a blast furnace going. This is very good news and a great thing, not only for the community but folks already employed and new ones. Everybody is pretty ecstatic.”
