ArcelorMittal to restart blast furnace at Dunkirk steel mill in August

ArcelorMittal is set to restart one of two temporarily shutdown blast furnaces at its Dunkirk plant in northern France in August, a spokesman for the world's largest steelmaker said on July 16.

ArcelorMittal plans to restart blast furnace No. 3, which has a capacity of 3 million tonnes /year of steel, at some point in August, but the exact date has not yet been determined, a spokesman said.

Dunkirk has three blast furnaces with a total annual capacity of 7 million tons, but currently only one is in operation. The two largest blast furnaces, which correspond to annual capacity, were temporarily closed in March and April due to the slowdown in demand caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

The steel market in Europe is gradually recovering, but in 2020 demand in developed countries is expected to decline 17.1% year on year, according to the World Steel Association.

Since the closure of the hot plants in Florence in 2012, only Dunkirk and Fos-sur-Mer in the south of France are producing crude steel using blast furnaces in France. The Fos-sur-Mer plant can produce 4 million tons of steel per year and is one of the largest French producers of sheet steel, of which 80% is produced for the automotive sector.

ArcelorMittal shut down blast furnace no. 1 in Fos-sur-Mer on 23 March due to the pandemic. Blast furnace # 2 at the site was supposed to be down in June, but this was postponed for a month.

A spokesman declined to comment on the matter, and it is unclear when and when he will be inactive.

Steel production in France fell 25% year on year to 4.8 million tonnes per year in the first five months of 2020, according to the World Steel Association.