U.S. Integrated Steelmakers Announce Blast Furnace Restarts

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): Pittsburgh-based integrated steelmaker United States Steel Corporation (US Steel) announced restart of its No.1 blast furnace at Moon Valley. The furnace returned to operation, after being shut down due to Covid-19-related halt in manufacturing operations across the country. This is the first blast furnace to announce production restart.

The blast furnace was idled in end-April this year along with the No.6 blast furnace at its Gary Works steelmaking plant. The company had idled five out of its total eight blast furnaces in the country.

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Meantime, a few market participants have questioned the company’s decision to restart the furnace at this time, without being sure of increased demand to consume additional tons produced by the furnace.

Meantime, AK steel plans to restart the blast furnace at its Dearbon, Michigan flat-rolled steel mill in July, mainly driven by rising demand from the automotive industry. The melt shop, which plans to begin operations in mid-July, will produce slabs instead of hot-rolled coils (HRC). The restart comes amidst predictions by AutoForecast Solutions that global auto production is likely to decline by 26% during the year.