Steel Mills

Blast Furnace Outages Update at AM & USS

May 27, 2014

As quickly as repaired blast furnaces come back online at US Steel and ArcelorMittal we are seeing them taking down more steelmaking equipment.

SMU received word that ArcelorMittal Cleveland Works restarted the C-5 blast furnace early Monday morning, May 26. The C-5 blast furnace has been down for a couple of weeks resulting in the loss of approximately 74,000 tons of pig iron production. This was an unplanned outage.

A spokesperson from ArcelorMittal said, “The restart is going as planned, and we are confident the furnace will be at full operation by the end of this week.

“We extend our sincere appreciation to our employees and customers for their commitment and patience during the repair process.”

SMU learned that the largest furnace at ArcelorMittal Indiana Harbor will be going down next week for two months. This is a planned reline and should not impact any of the ArcelorMittal customers.

At the same time US Steel is planning a maintenance outage to reline the No 1 blast furnace at Edgar Thompson Plant in Braddock, Pa. Repairs are expected to take 57 days according to SMU sources. A USS spokesperson advised that “customers will not be impacted as we are adjusting production accordingly.” Additional repairs may be made to the facilities caster and other equipment during the outage period.

Edgar Thompson operates two blast furnaces and supplies pig iron to Mon Valley Works. Total raw steel production capacity is 2.9 million tons annually. The number 1 furnace at Edgar Thompson Works is rated at 3,450 tons per day of pig iron melt.

Steel Market Update is not aware of any extra ordinary lead times associated with the planned furnace outages.