ArcelorMittal Idles European Furnaces on Weak Demand, High Costs

By the end of September, the steelmaker will shut down one of the blast furnaces at its Bremen, Germany, flat steel plant until further notice. Its Hamburg long steel facility will also be affected, as will facilities in Duisburg and Eisenhüttenstadt.

“The high costs of gas and electricity are a heavy burden on our competitiveness. In addition, from October there will be the gas levy planned by the federal government, which will continue to burden us,” said Reiner Blaschek, CEO of ArcelorMittal Germany.

“As an energy-intensive industry, we are extremely affected. With gas and electricity prices increasing tenfold within just a few months, we are no longer competitive in a market that is 25% supplied by imports. We see an urgent need for political action to get energy prices under control immediately,” Blaschek added.

Many European countries are seeing industry slowdowns. The problems stem largely from rising costs and decreased demand, a consequence of the war Ukraine. Companies like ArcelorMittal have had to reduce capacity in response.

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By Becca Moczygemba, Becca@SteelMarketUpdate.com