[ferro-alloys.com]Gerdau plans to idle melting and rolling operations at its St. Paul, Minnesota, long product steel mill by the end of June, the company has said.

The mill has a melt shop capacity of approximately 560,00 st/year, the company said late Monday. Gerdau will continue finishing operations at the St. Paul mill, it said.

About 250 employees will laid off, it said.

Gerdau operates six other long product mills in the US and three in Canada. The company will use its network of mills to support the entire product line currently offered out of St. Paul, it said.

"We are optimizing our footprint, as we continue to invest in our strongest assets," Chia Yuan Wang, president of Gerdau Long Steel North America, said in a statement.

（S&P Global Platts）

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