ArcelorMittal to launch a blast furnace at a plant in Spain in February

The decision to temporarily stop the blast furnace was made in September 2022

ArcelorMittal, one of the world’s largest steel producers, plans to restart blast furnace A with a capacity of 4.5 million tons per year at its Gijon (Spain) plant in February 2022. Spanish Cadena SER informs about it.

The blast furnace will be restarted, reducing production volumes. The decision to temporarily shut down the blast furnace was made in September 2022 due to the situation on the steel market – low demand and a high level of imports from outside the EU.

The Spanish Trade Unions (UGT) welcomed the decision. Thus, General Secretary of the Federation of Industry, Construction and Agriculture UGT of Asturias, Genaro Martínez, noted, that the steel sector is in a difficult situation due to the shutdown of the blast furnace in Gijon. He is asking the company’s management to start the blast furnace, as plants in Europe have already done, because the demand for steel products is increasing. Genaro Martínez also recalled the need to accelerate ArcelorMittal’s investments in decarbonization.

As GMK Center reported earlier, ArcelorMittal Poland (AMP) at the beginning of January 2023 launched blast furnace №3 at the plant in Dombrova-Gurnych. At the same time, the company is preparing blast furnace №2 to be shut down for overhaul — the reconstruction will begin in March 2023. It is expected that the repair will last 2-3 months, the total cost of it will exceed €100 million.

Also, the Belgian flat rolled producer NLMK La Louviere resumed work of the hot rolling mill, which has been idle since the second half of December 2022. Mill rolling operations are currently limited by roll thickness. The company is working to return to full operation and is taking measures to limit the impact of the situation on customers. The capacity of the hot rolling mill of the steel mill is 1.7 million tons per year.