US Steel idles Indiana blast furnace

Integrated steelmaker US Steel has idled its No. 8 blast furnace at its Gary Works steel mill in Indiana.

The blast furnace, which has a raw steel capacity of 1.5mn short tons (st)/yr, was idled on 7 September, the company said. It did not disclose a restart date.

The mill serves the flat-rolled steel market exclusively, and the idling was blamed on high import levels and market conditions.

The idling is the first market-related closure reported by a US steelmaker in recent memory. Sources have complained about persistent oversupply in the market and a lack of more permanent production cuts aimed at reducing volumes.

The Argus US Midwest hot-rolled coil (HRC) ex-works assessment has fallen by half since the beginning of the year to $800/st on 13 September.

One of US Steel's two blast furnaces at its Mon Valley Works in Pennsylvania, blast furnace No. 3, is undergoing previously scheduled maintenance that began on 3 September and is expected to last 30 days. The blast furnace has a raw steel production capacity of 1.4mn st/yr,and the outage will take out approximately 115,000st of raw steel production.

The company has also idled its No. 5 tin line at Gary Works, citing market conditions and tin product imports. That line has a production capacity of 140,000st/yr.

US Steel expects earnings to be 74pc less in the third quarter, than a year ago and 46pc less than the second quarter.

By Rye Druzin