U.S. Steel to Shut Blast Furnace No.8 at Gary Works

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): Pittsburgh-based integrated steelmaker U.S. Steel announced its decision to idle another blast furnace at its Gary Works, Indiana steel mill. The closure is in response to fall in demand due to pandemic impacts.

According to company press release, the drastic fall in demand, on account of closure of automobile manufacturing plants, has forced the company to idle blast furnace No.8, whose estimated production capacity is approximately 1.2 million short tons per year of flat-rolled products. The furnace had recently restarted operations, after maintenance outage.

The company had recently announced a series of aggressive actions in response to changes in global oil and gas markets on account of COVID-19 spread. It had decided to idle the no.4 blast furnace at Gary Works with immediate effect. Also, it had decided to complete the indefinite idling of the iron and steel making facilities at Great Lakes works. In addition, it had announced plans to idle all or most of the tubular operations at Lonestar and Lorain for an indefinite period.

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Also, steelmaker Nucor Corp. announced that it will idle the 2.5mn metric tonne (t)/yr direct reduced iron (DRI) plant in Louisiana due to impacts from Covid-19. Earlier, the company had suspended operations at its DRI plant in Trinidad & Tobago.