Steel Mills

ArcelorMittal Idles C Furnace at Burns Harbor

April 21, 2020

ArcelorMittal USA has idled the C blast furnace at Burns Harbor for a scheduled outage. “The company is currently in a quiet period in advance of Q1 2020 earnings and therefore we are unable to provide further details about the duration of the outage at this time,” said a company spokesperson. According to sources at KeyBanc Capital Markets, the furnace will be out for at least two weeks.

Weak demand conditions resulting from the COVID-19 crisis have led to a number of steel furnace shutdowns across the U.S. ArcelorMittal currently has the #4 and #3 furnaces idled at Indiana Harbor, the #6 at Cleveland, #3 at Dofasco and now the C blast furnace at Burns Harbor.The C furnace has a capacity of 7,400 tons per day.

ArcelorMittal USA, including Dofasco in Canada, has 12 furnaces with a total daily capacity of 60,500 tons. The recent outages have cut daily capacity by 23,250 tons.

ArcelorMittal issued a WARN notice last week to the Indiana Department of Workforce Development that 63 employees would be furloughed at Burns Harbor beginning April 12. The company expects the furlough to last less than six months.

Said ArcelorMittal USA in its letter to the DWD, “We are taking these employment actions because of COVID-19-related business circumstances that were not reasonably foreseeable. We would like to have given more notice of this action, but were unable to do so because of how quickly our operations were affected by the automotive closures, the COVID-19 pandemic, the World Health Organization’s pandemic declaration on March 11, the President’s declaration of a national emergency on March 13, and other related announcements and actions.”