ArcelorMittal resumes steel production at its plant in Fos-sur-Mer

Global steel producer ArcelorMittal has resumed steel production at its site in Fos-sur-Mer (France) after a fire on October 8 damaged the steelmaking shop and led to an almost complete shutdown of production. This is stated in the company’s press release.

The first slab after the downtime was produced at 3:24 a.m. on December 21 for a customer in Greece. The semi-finished product was 6 m long, 1,620 mm wide, and 229 mm thick.

A key step in the recovery was the restart of blast furnace No. 2 in mid-December. On the night from Sunday to Monday, the steelmaking shop produced the first slabs, after which the hot rolling mill was restarted. It allows semi-finished products to be processed into sheet steel with a thickness of 1.5 to 25 mm, followed by the formation of coils.

After the fire, production at the plant was initially limited and then almost completely halted, except for the coke chemical division. Frederic Baku, head of the department that suffered the most damage, emphasized the role of the staff in restoring the plant’s operations. According to him, the site teams demonstrated true engineering ingenuity in conceiving, designing, and implementing solutions that allowed production to be restarted as quickly as possible.

ArcelorMittal Méditerranée Director François Sgro emphasized that the company is returning to normal operations.

“We are very pleased to return to our usual course of business and resume deliveries to our customers,” he said.

The Fos-sur-Mer plant specializes in the production of steel for the automotive and industrial sectors. The company supplies more than 150 grades of steel to customers in the Mediterranean region and employs approximately 2,500 people and another 1,200 contractors, remaining one of the key industrial sites in southern France.

As a reminder, ArcelorMittal recently began a large-scale modernization of blast furnace No. 1 at its site in Fos-sur-Mer. 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 in operation at the site. DP No. 1 is set to become a reliable replacement for the current furnace No. 2.