As the daytime shift ends at the sprawling Great Lakes Works steel plant south of Detroit, there are only a dozen or so customers at Mr K’s Saloon, huddled around a few tables after a friend’s funeral. Behind the counter, Amanda, the 29-year-old owner of the bar, where a beer costs just $1.50, bemoans the poor state of business. The number of burgers she’s been serving to hungry workers has plummeted since the factory idled one of its blast furnaces and announced plans for 200 lay-offs this year.

“In the steel industry, it’s not always perfect. Some years are good and some years are bad,” she says. “But I feel like this has been one of the worst in a long time.” 

The struggles of the factory, run by Pittsburgh-based US Steel Corporation, reflect the torpor that has descended on  US manufacturing in 2019. Industrial activity has stagnated across the US economy, but particularly in several rust-belt states that could determine the outcome of Donald Trump’s re-election bid next year, in a worrying sign for the White House  and its trade policies.