Steel Mills

U.S. Steel Edgar Thomson BF Incident

Written by Sandy Williams

April 11, 2019

U.S. Steel Mon Valley is not producing pig iron due to an accident at their #1 Blast Furnace and the reline of the remaining furnace. According to U.S. Steel spokeswoman Meghan Cox, there was an issue with the top charging equipment in Blast Furnace #1 at the Edgar Thomson Plant. Sources told SMU that a bell fell into the furnace causing damage. There were no injuries to workers. The accident occured on Monday of this week.

The #1 furnace was being run while a reline was underway in a second blast furnace at the plant. The reline is expected to be completed by the end of May. With both furnaces now down, no pig iron and ultimately steel is being made at the plant (blast furnaces feed the Basic Oxygen furnaces where steel is produced).

Mon Valley Works consists of four steel facilities: Egar Thompson Plant where the blast furnaces are located along with the Clariton Plant, which is the largest coke manufacturing facility in the United States (this plant just finished repairs to correct air quality issues). The rolling mills are located at the Irwin Plant and coating lines are located at the Irwin and Fairless facilities. Total combined steelmaking capacity for Mon Valley Works is 2.9 million tons, according to the U.S. Steel website. Due to the configeration of the various plants, the rolling mills use slabs and there is most likely an inventory of slabs for the rolling mills to use as they repair the damage to the #1 Blast Furnace.

Cox said a crew is working around the clock to make repairs, which should be completed in less than two weeks. 

U.S. Steel does not anticipate any impact to customers.

Sandy Williams

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