Steel Mills

Blast Furnaces
Written by Brett Linton
June 18, 2015
Steel Market Update has been asked if the domestic steel mills have made any moves to restart idled blast furnaces in order to increase production due to dumping suits, price increases and the anticipated stronger order book. People also want to know if ArcelorMittal and US Steel are building slab inventories in order to have material available for their contract customers (especially automotive) should there be a production disruption due to the expiration of their labor agreements (September 1st – same day as the first day of our Steel Summit Conference in Atlanta).
We recently did an analysis of blast furnaces in the United States, Mexico and Canada to see what is running and what has returned to production. Essentially, both US Steel and ArcelorMittal have brought back a furnace over the past few weeks. AM brought back a blast furnace at their Cleveland Works and US Steel has/is bringing back their furnace at Fairfield Works in Alabama.
The process of finding out whether furnaces are running at any point in time can be difficult as US Steel and ArcelorMittal don’t always want to address those questions except on a quarterly basis during their conference calls with analysts. The data below is based on our recent research and there could be issues with one or two furnaces so we recommend that our readers check with your mill suppliers should you have any questions.
For those of you who do not realize this, Steel Market Update has a table in our website for our members where we attempt to keep up with the blast furnaces in North America. You must be logged into the website to access the data which looks something like this:
Blast Furnace Steel Mill Status
Mill Name / Plant | Furnace I.D. | Daily Capacity (Net Tons) | Running? | Comments | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
AK Steel | |||||
Ashland | Amanda | 6000 | Yes | ||
Middletown | No. 3 | 6500 | Yes | ||
AK Dearborn | C Furnace | 6000 | Yes | ||
AHMSA (Mexico) | |||||
No. 4 | 2700 | No | Idle | ||
No. 5 | 6500 | Yes | |||
No. 6 | 4500 | Yes | |||
ArcelorMittal | |||||
Hamilton (Canada) | No. 2 | 3200 | Yes | ||
No. 3 | 2500 | Yes | |||
No. 4 | 4700 | Yes | |||
Burns Harbor | C Furnace | 7400 | Yes | ||
D Furnace | 7400 | Yes | |||
Indiana Harbor | IH-3 W | 4300 | Yes | ||
IH-4 W | 4900 | No | |||
IH-5 E | 2900 | No | |||
IH-6 E | 5000 | No | |||
IH-7 E | 11500 | Yes | |||
Cleveland | C-5 | 4350 | Yes | ||
C-6 | 4150 | Yes | |||
Essar Steel Algoma (Canada) | |||||
No. 7 | 8400 | Yes | |||
No. 6 | 3000 | No | Possible restart in 2015 | ||
United States Steel | |||||
Edgar Thomson Works | No. 1 | 3450 | Yes | ||
No. 3 | 3100 | Yes | |||
Fairfield | No. 8 | 6000 | Yes | ||
Gary Works | No. 4 | 4200 | Yes | ||
No. 6 | 3800 | No | Down for maintenance, will come back up depending on market conditions | ||
No. 8 | 3300 | Yes | |||
No. 14 | 9200 | Yes | |||
Granite City | A Furnace | 3600 | Yes | One furnace is down to replace caster | |
B Furnace | 3600 | Yes | |||
Great Lakes (Ecorse, MI) | A-1 | 4100 | Yes* | *Only 2 of the 3 furnaces are running at any given time | |
B-2 | 3700 | Yes* | |||
D-4 | 4000 | Yes* | |||
Hamilton (Canada) | E Furnace | 5500 | No | Shut down October 4 2010 & removed from active status | |
Lake Erie (Canada) | No. 1 | 6575 | Yes |

Brett Linton
Read more from Brett LintonLatest in Steel Mills

AISI: US steel shipments rise in December
Domestic steel shipments increased month over month and year on year in December, according to the latest data from the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI). US steel mills shipped 7,145,016 short tons (st) in December, up 0.9% from 7,082,921 st in December 2023 and 6.6% higher than 6,702,557 st in November 2024. For the full-year […]

Cliffs, USW cite First Amendment in USS/Nippon litigation; seek case dismissal
The union says the suit is "a frivolous and unsubstantiated attack on our union simply for exercising our First Amendment rights."

AISI: Weekly raw steel output ticks higher
The volume of raw steel produced by US mills slightly increased last week, according to American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) data. Last week’s production rate represents the second-highest level recorded this year.

Opening briefs filed in Nippon/USS lawsuit vs. US government
Together, Nippon Steel, Nippon Steel North America, and U.S. Steel announced the filing of their opening brief in their litigation to invalidate the government’s decision to block their announced merger. The brief lays out “how President Biden made a predetermined decision for political reasons, not national security, causing CFIUS to engage in a sham review […]

Cliffs blames muted auto demand for steep losses in 2024
Muted demand from the auto industry took a particular toll later in the year.