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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. Were investing money here. And we wouldnt have done the deal with Nippon Steel if we werent absolutely sure that we were going to have an enduring future here in the Mon Valley,” David Burritt, U.S. Steels CEO, told a news conference the day after the explosion. You can count on this facility to be around for a long, long time. Will the explosion change anything? 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 Steels 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 its 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 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 areas 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. Will Clairton be modernized? It’s not clear whether Nippon Steel will change Clairton. Central to Trumps approval of the acquisition was Nippon Steels promises to invest $11 billion into U.S. Steels 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. Relics of steelmakings past In many ways, U.S. Steels Mon Valley plants are relics of steelmakings 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 wont 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 Pittsburghs 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. Im not quite sure its 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 thes things? Marc Levy, Associated Press
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E-Commerce
Share prices of GoodRx (NASDAQ: GDRX), the American healthcare company and telemedicine service, are currently soaring after the company announced that it will partner with Novo Nordisk to offer the lowest-ever out-of-pocket prices for Ozempic and Wegovy. According to a press release posted early on August 18, GoodRx has struck a deal with the pharmaceutical giant Novo Nordisk to sell its popular semaglutide medications, Ozempic and Wegovy, for just $499 per month to eligible self-paying customers. GoodRx doesnt sell or dispense any drugs itself, but rather provides savings and coupons that can be applied in pharmacies. Its exclusive Ozempic and Wegovy offerings, available starting today, are the lowest out-of-pocket costs for the medications available on the market. The news comes just weeks after Novo Nordisk cut ties with the telehealth company Hims & Hers Health (NYSE: HIMS) over claims that Hims & Hers was selling knockoff versions of Wegovy. Its a dispute that reflects a broader discussion around whether compounded semaglutide drugsor non-FDA approved versions of brand-name medicinesare a violation of intellectual property laws. As of this writing, GoodRxs stock is up by more than 30% since market close. Heres what to know about Novo Nordisks latest partnership and its ongoing legal battles against compounded GLP-1s. GoodRxs collaboration with Novo Nordisk In the last year alone, GoodRx reports that nearly 17 million people visited the site searching for information and savings on GLP-1 medicationsa 22% increase from the previous year. Demand for GLP-1 medications is at an all-time high, but too many Americans still face barriers accessing them, Wendy Barnes, GoodRX president and CEO, said in the press release. By partnering with Novo Nordisk, were taking a significant step forward in making these innovative brand-name treatments more accessible for millions of people who need them. In the past, a spokesperson told Fast Company, GoodRx has worked with both Novo Nordisk and its competitor Eli Lilly to offer commercially insured patients manufacturer savings cards on GLP-1s. The company has also offered savings on other types of weight loss/diabetes treatments, including Contrave, Dexcom G7, Lantus, and Qsymia. However, this is the first time that GoodRx has offered a cash price for a GLP-1. The $499 monthly self-pay cost will be available at more than 70,000 retail locations nationwide. Novo Nordisks current legal battles over compounded GLP-1s So far, investors response to GoodRxs new collaboration has been overwhelmingly positive. It stands in sharp contrast to Hims & Hers recent breakup with Novo Nordisk, which caused the telehealth companys share prices to plummet in late June. Hims & Hers and Novo Nordisk parted ways over Hims & Hers offering of compounded versions of Wegovy. Back in 2022, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) declared a shortage of GLP-1 medications including Ozempic and Wegovy. Under this shortage notice, pharmacies were permitted to make compounded versions of the brand-name drugs using their active ingredient, semaglutide, and sell them at a lower cost. However, Hims & Hers has continued to sell its compounded version of Wegovy long after the FDA lifted the shortage back in February. Now, Novo Nordisk is arguing that these compounded drugs are both a violation of its intellectual property and potentially dangerous to patients, due to their lack of FDA approval. Early this month, Novo Nordisk announced 14 new lawsuits against small pharmacies, telehealth providers, and weight-loss clinics over compounded versions of Ozempic and Wegovybringing its total cases filed on the matter up to more than 130 in 40 states. Experts say that federal compounding laws are just vague enough to allow for various interpretations, meaning that Novo Nordisks current legal challenges could shape the way courts interpret those boundaries in the future. In a statement to Yahoo Finance, Barnes offered a clear look into GoodRxs stance on compounded drugs: “There’s no question we could have tried to do something sooner from a compounded alternative pathway, but we have been very clear in our belief that it needed to be FDA-approved, lawfully approved. It just wasn’t a pathway that we were going to support,” she said.
Category:
E-Commerce
A judge on Monday fined Qantas Airways 90 million Australian dollars ($59 million) for illegally firing more than 1,800 ground staff at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. The penalty is in addition to the AU$120 million ($78 million) in compensation that Australias biggest airline had already agreed to pay its former employees. Australian Federal Court Justice Michael Lee said the outsourcing of 1,820 baggage handler and cleaner jobs at Australian airports in late 2020 was the largest and most significant contravention of relevant Australian labor laws in their 120-year history. Qantas agreed in December last year to pay AU$120 million ($78 million) in compensation to former staff after seven High Court judges unanimously rejected the Sydney-based airlines appeal against the judgment that outsourcing their jobs was illegal. The Transport Workers Union, which took the airline to court, had argued the airline should receive the largest fine available AU$121,212,000 ($78,969,735). Lee ruled that the minimum fine to create a deterrence should be AU$90 million ($59 million), noting that Qantas executives had expected to save AU$125 million ($81 million) a year through outsourcing the jobs. Lee questioned the sincerity of Qantass apology for its illegal conduct, noting that the airline later unsuccessfully argued that it owed no compensation to its former staff. If any further evidence was needed of the unrelenting and aggressive litigation strategy adopted in this case by Qantas, it is provided by this effort directed to denying any compensation whatsoever to those in respect of whom Qantas was publicly professing regret for their misfortune, Lee said. “I do think that the people in charge of Qantas now have some genuine regret, but this more likely reflects the damage that this case has done to the company rather than remorse for the damage done to the affected workers, Lee added. Qantas chief executive Vanessa Hudson, who was the airline’s chief financial officer during the layoffs, said in a statement after Monday’s decision: We sincerely apologize to each and every one of the 1,820 ground handling employees and to their families who suffered as a result. The decision to outsource five years ago, particularly during such an uncertain time, caused genuine hardship for many of our former team and their families,” she said. Over the past 18 months weve worked hard to change the way we operate as part of our efforts to rebuild trust with our people and our customers. This remains our highest priority as we work to earn back the trust we lost, she added. Lee ruled that AU$50 million ($33 million) of the fine go to the union, because no Australian government agency had shown interest in investigating or prosecuting Qantas. But for the union , Qantas contravening conduct would never have been exposed and it would never have been held to account for its unlawful conduct, Lee said. Hence the union has brought to the attention of the court a substantial and significant transgression of a public obligation by a powerful and substantial employer, Lee added. A hearing will be held at a later date to decide where the remaining AU$40 million ($26 million) of the fine will go. Michael Kaine, national secretary of the union that represents 60,000 members, said he felt vindicated by Mondays ruling, which ends a five-year legal battle that Qantas had been widely expected to win. It is a significant the most significant industrial outcome in Australias history and it sends a really clear message to Qantas and to every employer in Australia: Treat your work force illegally and you will be held accountable, Kaine told reporters. Against all the odds, we took on a behemoth that had shown itself to be ruthless and we won, Kaine added. Qantas has admitted illegally dealing with passengers as well as employees in its responses to pandemic economic challenges. Last year, Qantas agreed to pay AU$120 million ($78 million) in compensation and a fine for selling tickets on thousands of cancelled flights. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, a consumer watchdog, sued the airline in the Federal Court alleging that Qantas engaged in false, misleading or deceptive conduct by advertising tickets for more than 8,000 flights from May 2021 through to July 2022 that had already been canceled. Rod McGuirk, Associated Press
Category:
E-Commerce
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