In a letter sent out to employees on Wednesday morning, Gerdau Ameristeel’s Calvert City plant stated that it will idle operations effective November 30, 2016.
The idling of Ameristeel was also echoed by Calvert City mayor Lynn Jones, who said that a total of 100 jobs will be lost.
Ameristeel acquired the steel mill plant in 2004, which was formerly operated by Northstar.
The news comes as a surprise to many in the community, as Ameristeel had invested over $25 million in a new re-heating furnace over the last five years.
Gerdau, is the largest producer of longsteel in the Americas, with steel mills in Brazil, Argentina, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, India, Mexico, Peru, Spain,United States, Uruguay and Venezuela. It also holds a 40% stake in the Spanish company Sidenor. Currently, Gerdau has an installed capacity of 26 million metric tons of steel per year and offers steel for the civil construction, automobile, industrial, agricultural and various sectors.
Gerdau is the world’s 14th largest steelmaker and the largest producer of long steel in the Americas. It has 337 industrial and commercial units and more than 45,000 employees across 14 countries.