Europe's largest steel producer ArcelorMittal is planning to keep one of its blast furnaces temporarily shut at its Fos-sur-Mer site in France on low demand, the company confirmed to S&P Global Commodity Insights Oct. 12.
¿No está registrado?
Reciba alertas diarias y avisos para suscriptores por correo electrónico; personalice su experiencia.
Registro"Blast furnace number 1, currently shut down for technical reasons, will remain shut following maintenance operations until the market situation is consistent with the operations of the site with two blast furnaces," the company stated.
ArcelorMittal will reassess the demand situation by the end of the first quarter of 2024. "During this period, adaptation measures will be put in place, with priority given to staff training and measures to ensure the long-term viability of the industrial facilities," the company said, stressing that it will keep continuity of service for their customers.
ArcelorMittal operates two blast furnaces at the Fos-sur-Mer site with a total capacity of 4 million mt/year. The site is also benefiting from a Eur1.7 billion ($1.85 billion) decarbonization program partly funded by the French government. ArcelorMittal in its note to S&P Global also stressed that ArcelorMittal Méditerranée, a part of ArcelorMittal, is continuing to invest in decarbonizing the site in particular with the ongoing construction of a ladle furnace, a Eur73 million ($78 million) investment that will increase the use of recycled steel and an electric furnace project.
With the prices of flat steel products already continuing to soften in Europe on low demand, inflationary pressure and high energy costs have also led to their margins being squeezed.
To sustain prices and keep margins, ArcelorMittal had already idled its blast furnaces No. 2 and No. 3 temporarily at its Bremen site from Oct. 1, with other steelmakers also following suit.
The Platts-assessed hot rolled coils prices rose from Eur700/mt base ex-works Ruhr at the beginning of January to Eur610/mt ($647.64/mt) ex-works Ruhr on Oct. 11, S&P Global data showed. Although in April, prices moved up to Eur860/mt base ex-works, they fell again. Prices are nearly half of the historical level in March 2022 when they were at Eur1,460/mt base ex-works.
Platts is part of S&P Global.