ArcelorMittal to Put Blast Furnace B at Ghent Back into Operation

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): Integrated steelmaker ArcelorMittal expects to restart furnace B at its Ghent, Belgium site by middle of this month. The 2.3 million metric tonnes (Mt) furnace was idled in September last year for relining. It must be noted that it is one of the two furnaces at the Belgium site, whose combined crude steel production capacity is around 5 Mt of crude steel per annum.

Meantime, the company noted that works are still on towards restart of blast furnace No.2 in its Taranto, Italy steel mill. The restart was initially scheduled on January 26^th, but has now been delayed on account of delay caused by the new software of a newly installed machine. The company had restarted the melting shop 1 during the last week of January this year. The No.2 blast furnace and the melting shop 1 were temporarily shut in March last year.

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The restart of the furnace will boost the company’s crude steel output from the region to 5 Mt, as compared with the output of 3.4 Mt in 2020.

Out of five blast furnaces at AM Italia, only No.1 and No.4 furnaces are fully operational as of now. The largest among them, No.5 furnace was idled in 2015. The No.3 blast furnace was idled long back in 1994 and is due to be dismantled. Also, No.3 furnace is expected to be temporarily idled in March this year for refurbishment.