Steel Mills

U.S. Steel Slates 16-Day Outage on Gary Works No. 6 BF

Written by Michael Cowden

October 4, 2023

U.S. Steel will take a 16-day planned outage beginning next week on the No. 6 blast furnace (BF) at its Gary Works in northwest Indiana.

The Pittsburgh-based steelmaker said the repairs, focused on the furnace’s stove, were part of its previously planned 2023 capital project.

“There is no impact on employment or customers. This is unrelated to the UAW strike,” a company spokeswoman told SMU on Wednesday.

The statement appears to dispel rumors in the market that a smaller furnace at Gary Works might be idled because of the strike, which began on Sept. 15 and has expanded since.

U.S. Steel has four active furnaces at Gary Works: No. 4, No. 6, No. 8, and No 14, according to SMU’s blast furnace status table.

No. 6 is one of three smaller furnaces there. It has a daily iron-making capacity of 3,450 tons. The No. 14 furnace is much larger than the other furnaces. It has a daily iron-making capacity of 7,450 tons.

Michael Cowden

Michael Cowden is managing editor for Steel Market Update. Cowden has covered the steel industry since 2007. He has since 2014 specialized in flat-rolled steel but has previously reported on steel long products, steel pipe and tube as well as aluminum. Before joining SMU, Cowden held reporting jobs at Fastmarkets AMM in Chicago - where he was involved in launching AMM's daily hot-rolled coil index, 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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