Steel Mills

USS Completes Planned Outage at Mon Valley No. 1 Blast Furnace

Written by Michael Cowden

May 25, 2021

U.S. Steel has completed a 25-day maintenance outage on the No. 1 blast furnace at its Mon Valley Works in western Pennsylvania, a company spokeswoman said.

The outage was part of the steelmaker’s normal maintenance program. The downtime was used to apply shotcrete–a sprayed concrete–and other standard upkeep, sources have said.

US SteelThe Pittsburgh-based steelmaker said on its first-quarter earnings call on Friday, April 30, that it had begun the previously announced outage.

Steel Market Update has updated its blast furnace status table, found by clicking here, to reflect the development.

Mon Valley Works has two blast furnaces: No. 1 and No. 3. The No. 1 furnace has daily ironmaking capacity of approximately 3,200 tons. The No. 3 furnace has daily capacity of approximately 2,900 tons.

The furnaces are located at U.S. Steel’s Edgar Thomson Plant in Braddock, Pa. Edgar Thomson produces liquid metal, which is cast into steel slabs. Those slabs are then railed to the company’s Irvin Plant in West Mifflin, Pa., where they are rolled into steel sheet.

By Michael Cowden, Michael@SteelMarketUpdate.com

Michael Cowden

Michael Cowden is managing editor for Steel Market Update. Cowden has covered the steel industry since 2007. He specializes in flat-rolled steel but has also reported on steel long products, steel pipe and tube, and aluminum. Before joining SMU, Cowden held reporting jobs at Fastmarkets AMM in Chicago, the Associated Press in Pittsburgh, and the Cambodia Daily in Phnom Penh. He has also worked as a copy editor and in marketing at the University of Chicago Press. Cowden has a BA in English from the University of Chicago and an MSJ journalism from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. Contact him at michael@steelmarketupdate.com or 724-759-7872.

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