LIBERTY Galati resumed operation of blast furnace No. 5 at the beginning of December

Romanian steel plant LIBERTY Galati, part of the GFG Alliance group of companies owned by Sajiv Gupta, resumed operation of blast furnace (BF) No. 5 on December 9, 2023, after 69 days of downtime. This was announced by Cornel-Romeo Moisescu, Head of Pig Iron Production at LIBERTY Galati.

Blast furnace No. 5 at LIBERTY’s Romanian plant has been suspended since September 30, 2023. The main reasons for the shutdown at that time were severe weather conditions in the Black Sea and a sharp drop in the water level in the Danube. This affected the supply of sufficient raw materials for the safe operation of the unit.

«After 69 days of downtime, 10 days ago, BF No. 5 LIBERTY Galati was successfully restarted by the company’s team. The conditions of the restart were difficult, because solidified and liquid materials were not evacuated from the mining unit,» he said.

The blast furnace reached its design capacity in 4 days.

Earlier, LIBERTY announced that it would restart BF No. 5 on November 7, 2023. The company is adapting to market conditions by adjusting its product range and work schedules, as well as reducing its cost base in cooperation with the government to overcome the difference in energy prices observed in Europe.

As GMK Center reported earlier, in 2021, LIBERTY Galati achieved a record pig iron production volume of 2.1 million tons at blast furnace No. 5. The total steel output amounted to 2.35 million tons with a production capacity of 3 million tons of steel per year. The hot strip mill produced 1.62 million tons of products, up almost 20% yoy.