U.S. Steel Corporation (USS) is announcing a series of management changes at its headquarters and at its operations in both the U.S. and Europe.

At the Gary Works facilities Frederick Jauss has been named general manager. Jauss replaces Michael Williams, who was named vice president-operations, Midwest.

Ralph Corrente has been named plant manager-primary operations. Corrente replaces Sharon Owen, who was named general manager-Granite City Works in Granite City, Ill.

David Armstrong has been named plant manager-Midwest Plant. Armstrong replaces Thomas Kelly, who will assume Corrente’s previous position of general manager-blast furnace engineering and technology.

The appointments are effective March 1.

George Babcoke

and David Lohr

Meanwhile, George Babcoke has been named senior vice president-European Operations and president-U.S. Steel Kosice. He succeeds David Lohr. Babcoke will oversee U.S. Steel’s two European operations: U.S. Steel Kosice in the Slovak Republic and U.S. Steel Serbia in the Republic of Serbia.

Lohr will return from Europe to U.S. Steel’s Pittsburgh headquarters to take the position of senior vice president-North American flat-roll operations. He will direct the newly divided executive oversight of the company’s North American flat-rolled steelmaking operations. He will also oversee supply chain management and flat-rolled sales.

“Over the last three years,” USS Chair and CEO John Surma said, “Dave (Lohr) led our European operations through a period of dramatic growth and change. Under his leadership, we built a new hot-dip galvanizing line in Slovakia, rebuilt and restarted a blast furnace in Serbia that had been idle for 18 years, and made numerous other operational and environmental investments. Even more important, however, were the continued improvements in each location’s safety performance. We are confident that (George Babcoke’s) extensive steel industry background, strong leadership skills, and intense focus on safety and environmental stewardship will be tremendous assets to our European operations and their efforts to supply world-class, value-added steel products to our Central European customers.”

Posted 2/27/2008