Indiana Harbor furnace goes down for two weeks

A blast furnace at steelmaker ArcelorMittal's Indiana Harbor facility will be down for about two weeks following an unplanned outage.

The company shut down the No. 3 blast furnace at the East Chicago, Indiana, complex on 4 August after the large bell dropped into the furnace during the charge, causing a filling problem. Repairs began on 5 August and are expected to last about two weeks.

ArcelorMittal said it advanced production volumes at its No. 4 and No. 7 furnaces at the complex to make up for the outage, resulting in minimal impact on customers.

The Luxembourg-based steelmaker restarted the No. 3 furnace in October 2016 after a 20-month idling related to weak market conditions.

It is one of three active blast furnaces at the East Chicago complex, which is the largest integrated steelmaking plant in North America and can produce 6.4mn st/yr of steel products.

Indiana Harbor produces hot-rolled, cold-rolled, hot-dipped galvanized and aluminized sheet products.