US Steel Kosice does not plan to restart blast furnace No. 2 in Q2

The unit was shut down in early March for scheduled maintenance. Launch postponed due to weak steel demand

Slovakian steelmaker US Steel Kosice (USSK), a subsidiary of US Steel, plans to extend the downtime of blast furnace No. 2 in the second quarter of 2024. This is reported by Eurometal with reference to Fastmarkets data.

The unit was shut down in early March this year for scheduled maintenance. The launch was postponed due to low demand for steel in Europe and falling prices.

«We have adapted our production capacity to meet market needs. We have decided to extend the scheduled March 2024 repair of blast furnace No. 2 to the second quarter of 2024,» the company said.

US Steel Kosice is equipped with three blast furnaces with a total capacity of 5 million tons of pig iron per year. The plant specializes in the production of hot-rolled, cold-rolled and hot-dip galvanized coils.

In 2023, the company produced 4.39 million tons of steel, up 14.5% y/y. The plant’s steel shipments increased by 3.7% y/y – to 3.899 million tons.

The company increased its performance despite scheduled maintenance in the summer of 2023, including at the blast furnace, and unfavorable conditions in the EU steel market.

In addition, in 2023, it became known that US Steel Kosice, as part of the EU’s ambitions to reduce industrial emissions, will receive €300 million from the government to implement decarbonization projects. The company plans to modernize its production facilities by replacing two blast furnaces with electric arc furnaces. The total cost of the project is estimated at over €1 billion.

As GMK Center reported earlier, in 2023, steel enterprises in Slovakia increased steel production by 15.4% compared to 2022, to 4.5 million tons. The country has two steel enterprises: US Steel Kosice, with a capacity of 4.5 million tons of steel per year and 5 million tons of iron per year, and Max Aicher Slovakia Steel Mills Strazske (620 thousand tons of steel per year).