ArcelorMittal Fos-sur-Mer plans to resume production in early December

Following the incident that occurred on October 8 at the ArcelorMittal plant in Fos-sur-Mer (France), the company has focused on ensuring the safety of the facility. Work to stabilize it is expected to be completed by the end of this week, the company said.

Due to the consequences of the incident, the blast furnace and steelmaking shop have been shut down, while the sintering plant has continued its scheduled shutdown. Coke production is operating autonomously, using its own gas. The hot rolling, processing, and logistics lines are currently busy processing and shipping existing stocks.

The company’s specialists have already begun dismantling and reconstructing the damaged areas. According to preliminary estimates, the restart of steelmaking production is expected in early December, initially on a temporary basis. The final schedule for returning to normal operation is currently being finalized.

To minimize the impact on customers, some orders have been redirected to other ArcelorMittal plants in Europe, and agreements have been signed to supply slabs from external sources until the end of the year.

During the downtime, the plant’s management will determine the scope of work for personnel involved in repairs and restoration. Employees of the shut-down shops will have a flexible schedule: 50% of the time in activity (repair work, updating instructions, training, process improvement) and 50% on vacation or in partial downtime (APLD).

As a reminder, ArcelorMittal recently began a large-scale modernization of blast furnace No. 1 at its site in Fos-sur-Mer, France. The €53 million investment will extend the unit’s service life and ensure its efficient operation amid capacity reductions – from 2024, only one of the two blast furnaces will be operating at the site. BF No. 1 is set to become a reliable replacement for the current BF No. 2.