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    Market Segment

    U.S. Steel to Idle Three Blast Furnaces

    Written by Sandy Williams


    U.S. Steel Corp. announced today that it will idle two blast furnaces in the United States and one in Europe to align with current market conditions.

    The B2 furnace at Great Lakes Works was idled last week for planned maintenance. U.S. Steel plans to keep the furnace idled following repairs, as well as temporarily idling the south blast furnace at Gary Works. The measures will reduce monthly blast furnace capacity by approximately 200,000-250,000 tons beginning in July. If the two furnaces remain down for the remainder of the year, annual shipments will be reduced to 11.0 million tons. Blast furnace production will resume when market conditions improve, said U.S. Steel.

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