Steel Mills
Explosion at Indiana Harbor Causes Outage of BF #4
Written by Sandy Williams
December 29, 2019
An explosion caused by a water and molten iron reaction at ArcelorMittal Indiana Harbor on Dec. 27 resulted in fire and damage to the #4 furnace.
A spokesperson for ArcelorMittal said the company is assessing the damage to determine a timeline for repairs and the duration of the outage at IH 4 SP. ArcelorMittal will ramp-up production at its other steel shops and use current inventory to offset any lost production resulting from the outage.
“Thankfully, there were no injuries as a result of the incident and the company appreciates the hard work from the first responders that helped secure the site,” said the spokesperson.
The IH 4 SP had a daily capacity of 4,900 tons. The incident leaves only IH-7E in operation at Indiana Harbor with a daily capacity of 11,500 tons. ArcelorMittal announced in November that the #3 blast furnace, with a daily capacity of 4,300 tons, had reached the end of its operational life and would be shutdown.
Sandy Williams
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