United States Steel Corp. (NYSE: X) plans to take strategic action to strengthen its position within a changing steel industry, and so far the share price would say it is working. A few key items on the docket that U.S. Steel is addressing are its iron ore pellet operations in Keewatin, carbon alloy facilities at Gary Works and its subsidiary in Canada. Considering these strategic decisions, the company has updated its outlook going forward as well.

U.S. Steel has decided against an expansion with its iron ore pellet operations in Keewatin, Minn. The expansion would have added 3.6 million tons to the factory’s production, increasing the total to 9.6 million, as well as upgrading the mining, concentrating and agglomerating processes. The permits required for the expansion expire this month and the company has no plans to renew them.

The company also plans on not funding additional investments into the carbon alloy facilities at Gary Works. U.S. Steel began this project in 2011 with the construction of one facility, which will remain idle, but never completed the second facility. The estimated capital investment to go through with the projects at Gary Works would be in excess of $800 million.

In Canada the steel giant has recorded a loss in each of the past five years, totaling at $2.4 billion. These losses precipitated U.S. Steel applying for Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act, which will ultimately deconsolidate U.S. Steel Canada and its subsidiaries from U.S. Steel’s financial statements.

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As a result of these strategic decisions, the company evaluated its third-quarter outlook as:

We estimate a non-cash, pretax charge of between $550 million and $600 million (approximately $300 million to $350 million from the CCAA filing and deconsolidation of U. S. Steel Canada and approximately $250 million for the other two strategic actions). In August, we completed the sale of surface rights and mineral royalty revenue streams in the state of Alabama, which has generated approximately $55 million of cash and pre-tax income, and we made a $140 million voluntary contribution to our main defined benefit pension plan. Our cash balance as of Aug. 31, 2014 was $1.4 billion after the receipt of the $55 million and the payment of the $140 million described above, as well as a rebuilding of inventories depleted in the second quarter.

The shares have recently traded at $44.95, which is an increase of roughly 8.5% from the previous close of $41.41. U.S. Steel has a consensus analyst price target of $39.06 and a 52-week trading range of $20.00 to $46.55. Looking forward, the stock is trading at about 16 times its future earnings.

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