Fatal explosion at U.S. Steel's plant raises questions about its future, despite heavy investment

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — The fatal explosion last week at U.S. Steel's Pittsburgh-area coal-processing plant has revived debate about its future just as the iconic American company was emerging from a long period of uncertainty.

The fortunes of steelmaking in the U.S. — along with profits, share prices and steel prices — have been buoyed by years of friendly administrations in Washington that slapped tariffs on foreign imports and bolstered the industry's anti-competitive trade cases against China.

Most recently, President Donald Trump's administration postponed new hazardous air pollution requirements for the nation's roughly dozen coke plants, like Clairton, and he approved U.S. Steel's nearly $15 billion acquisition by Japanese steelmaker Nippon Steel.

Nippon Steel's promised infusion of cash has brought vows that steelmaking will continue in the Mon Valley, a river valley south of Pittsburgh long synonymous with steelmaking.

“We’re investing money here. And we wouldn’t have done the deal with Nippon Steel if we weren’t absolutely sure that we were going to have an enduring future here in the Mon Valley," David Burritt, U.S. Steel’s CEO, told a news conference the day after the explosion. ”You can count on this facility to be around for a long, long time.”

The explosion killed two workers and hospitalized 10 with a blast so powerful that it took hours to find two missing workers beneath charred wreckage and rubble. The cause is under investigation.

The plant is considered the largest coking operation in North America and, along with a blast furnace and finishing mill up the Monongahela River, is one of a handful of integrated steelmaking operations left in the U.S.

The explosion now could test Nippon Steel’s resolve in propping up the nearly 110-year-old Clairton plant, or at least force it to spend more than it had anticipated.

Nippon Steel didn't respond to a question as to whether the explosion will change its approach to the plant.

Rather, a spokesperson for the company said its “commitment to the Mon Valley remains strong” and that it sent “technical experts to work with the local teams in the Clairton Plant, and to provide our full support.”

Meanwhile, Burritt said he had talked to top Nippon Steel officials after the explosion and that “this facility and the Mon Valley are here to stay.”

U.S. Steel officials maintain that safety is their top priority and that they spend $100 million a year on environmental compliance at Clairton alone.

However, repairing Clairton could be expensive, an investigation into the explosion could turn up more problems, and an official from the United Steelworkers union said it’s a constant struggle to get U.S. Steel to invest in its plants.

Besides that, production at the facility could be affected for some time. The plant has six batteries of ovens and two — where the explosion occurred — were damaged. Two others are on a reduced production schedule because of the explosion.

There is no timeline to get the damaged batteries running again, U.S. Steel said.

Accidents are nothing new at Clairton, which heats coal to high temperatures to make coke, a key component in steelmaking, and produces combustible gases as byproducts.

An explosion in February injured two workers.

Even as Nippon Steel was closing the deal in June, a breakdown at the plant dealt three days of a rotten egg odor into the air around it from elevated hydrogen sulfide emissions, the environmental group GASP reported.

The Breathe Project, a public health organization, said U.S. Steel has been forced to pay $57 million in fines and settlements since Jan. 1, 2020, for problems at the Clairton plant.

A lawsuit over a Christmas Eve fire at the Clairton plant in 2018 that saturated the area’s air for weeks with sulfur dioxide produced a withering assessment of conditions there.

An engineer for the environmental groups that sued wrote that he “found no indication that U.S. Steel has an effective, comprehensive maintenance program for the Clairton plant.”

The Clairton plant, he wrote, is "inherently dangerous because of the combination of its deficient maintenance and its defective design."

U.S. Steel settled, agreeing to spend millions on upgrades.

Matthew Mehalik, executive director of the Breathe Project, said U.S. Steel has shown more willingness to spend money on fines, lobbying the government and buying back shares to reward shareholders than making its plants safe.

It's not clear whether Nippon Steel will change Clairton.

Central to Trump’s approval of the acquisition was Nippon Steel’s promises to invest $11 billion into U.S. Steel’s aging plants and to give the federal government a say in decisions involving domestic steel production, including plant closings.

But much of the $2.2 billion that Nippon Steel has earmarked for the Mon Valley plants is expected to go toward upgrading the finishing mill, or building a new one.

For years before the acquisition, U.S. Steel had signaled that the Mon Valley was on the chopping block.

That left workers there uncertain whether they'd have jobs in a couple years and whispering that U.S. Steel couldn't fill openings because nobody believed the jobs would exist much longer.

In many ways, U.S. Steel’s Mon Valley plants are relics of steelmaking’s past.

In the early 1970s, U.S. steel production led the world and was at an all-time high, thanks to 62 coke plants that fed 141 blast furnaces. Nobody in the U.S. has opened a new blast furnace in decades, as foreign competition devastated the American steel industry and coal fell out of favor.

Now, China is dominant in steel and heavily invested in coal-based steelmaking. In the U.S., there are barely a dozen coke plants and blast furnaces left, as the country's steelmaking has shifted to cheaper electric arc furnaces that use electricity, not coal.

Blast furnaces won’t entirely go away, analysts say, since they produce metals that are preferred by automakers, appliance makers and oil and gas exploration firms.

Still, Christopher Briem, an economist at the University of Pittsburgh’s Center for Social and Urban Research, questioned whether the Clairton plant really will survive much longer, given its age and condition. It could be particularly vulnerable if the economy slides into recession or the fundamentals of the American steel market shift, he said.

“I’m not quite sure it’s all set in stone as people believe,” Briem said. “If the market does not bode well for U.S. Steel, for American steel, is Nippon Steel really going to keep these things?”

Follow Marc Levy on X at https://x.com/timelywriter.

A portion of the Clairton Coke Works, a U.S. Steel plant, is seen Monday, Aug. 11, 2025 in Clairton, Pa. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar

Steelworkers cross a bridge to the the Clairton Coke Works, a U.S. Steel plant, in Clairton, Pa., Tuesday, Aug. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

This is a portion of the Clairton Coke Works, a U.S. Steel plant, in Clairton, Pa., Tuesday, Aug. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

The Clairton Coke Works, a U.S. Steel coking plant, is seen Monday, Aug 11, 2025, in Clairton, Penn. (AP Photo/Gene Puskar)

This is the back of the safety helmet worn by a steelworker listening to Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro's meeting with media at the Clairton Coke Works, a U.S. Steel plant, in Clairton, Pa., Tuesday, Aug. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. forces in the Caribbean Sea have seized another sanctioned oil tanker that the Trump administration says has ties to Venezuela, part of a broader U.S. effort to take control of the South American country’s oil.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem wrote on social media that the U.S. Coast Guard had boarded the Motor Tanker Veronica early Thursday. She said the ship had previously passed through Venezuelan waters and was operating in defiance of President Donald Trump’s "established quarantine of sanctioned vessels in the Caribbean.”

U.S. Southern Command said Marines and sailors launched from the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford to take part in the operation alongside a Coast Guard tactical team, which Noem said conducted the boarding as in previous raids. The military said the ship was seized “without incident.”

Noem posted a brief video that appeared to show part of the ship’s capture. The black-and-white footage showed helicopters hovering over the deck of a merchant vessel while armed troops dropped down on the deck by rope.

The Veronica is the sixth sanctioned tanker seized by U.S. forces as part of the effort by Trump’s administration to control the production, refining and global distribution of Venezuela’s oil products and the fourth since the U.S. ouster of Venezuela President Nicolás Maduro in a surprise nighttime raid almost two weeks ago.

The Veronica last transmitted its location on Jan. 3 as being at anchor off the coast of Aruba, just north of Venezuela’s main oil terminal. According to the data it transmitted at the time, it was partially filled with crude.

The ship is currently listed as flying the flag of Guyana and is considered part of the shadow fleet that moves cargoes of oil in violation of U.S. sanctions.

According to its registration data, the ship also has been known as the Galileo, owned and managed by a company in Russia. In addition, a tanker with the same registration number previously sailed under the name Pegas and was sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department for moving cargoes of illicit Russian oil.

As with prior posts about such raids, Noem and the military framed the seizure as part of an effort to enforce the law. Noem argued that the multiple captures show that “there is no outrunning or escaping American justice.”

However, other officials in Trump's Republican administration have made clear that they see the actions as a way to generate cash as they seek to rebuild Venezuela’s battered oil industry and restore its economy.

Trump met with executives from oil companies last week to discuss his goal of investing $100 billion in Venezuela to repair and upgrade its oil production and distribution. His administration has said it expects to sell at least 30 million to 50 million barrels of sanctioned Venezuelan oil.

This story has been corrected to show the Veronica is the fourth, not the third, tanker seized by U.S. forces since Maduro's capture.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks with reporters at the White House, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks with reporters at the White House, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks with reporters at the White House, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks with reporters at the White House, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks with reporters at the White House, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks during a press conference, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks at a news conference at Harry Reid International Airport, Nov. 22, 2025, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Ronda Churchill, File)