ArcelorMittal Dunkirk to restart blast furnace in June

The ArcelorMittal steel mill in Dunkirk is preparing to resume production at blast furnace #4 after a fire in March. After the refurbishment, production should resume in mid-June, with the ramp-up phase to last several weeks. The company previously announced plans to restore the operation of furnace No. 4 in Dunkirk at the end of May 2023.

"Teams are making progress on prioritized actions to analyze, repair and prepare for a restart," a company spokesperson said.

The process of emptying blast furnace 4 has been going on for the last ten days. This made it possible to evacuate more than 70% of the material. New electrical wiring is being carried out, while structural repairs to the building in the south hall continue.

“By adapting the operation of its facilities to a single blast furnace, ArcelorMittal France is implementing solutions that limit the impact on customers as much as possible: orders for slabs within the ArcelorMittal group, transfer and /or transfer of orders, maximum use of stock. "concludes the source.

DP No. 4 is the largest at the plant in Dunkirk. In addition to blast furnaces Nos. 2, 3 and 4, the plant is equipped with a coke oven, two sinter plants, three converters, three CCMs and a hot rolling mill. Currently, the plant uses only one blast furnace - No. 3, whose capacity is 1.5 million tons per year.

At the same time, the consequences of the fire that occurred at the ArcelorMittal plant in Gijón in northern Spain are more critical. The company is currently inspecting the scene and cleaning Blast Furnace A. The downtime of the unit has not yet been disclosed, but the company has already approved a six-month layoff plan for about 7,000 workers at the plant and other dependent facilities. According to unofficial forecasts, the plant will not operate for at least two months.

As European consumers of hot-rolled steel expect, recent incidents at two steel mills of Europe's largest steelmaker ArcelorMittal in France and Spain will soon provoke a shortage of hot-rolled steel in the EU market at the level of 1 million tons. The company has already informed customers that delays in deliveries of hot-rolled steel are inevitable. The main peak of the product deficit is expected in June-August 2023.