[ferro-alloys.com]ArcelorMittal has begun preparations to restart the No. 4 blast furnace at its Indiana Harbor steel mill after blowing down the furnace in late March in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, a spokesman for the company said Aug. 3.

The company is also currently working through repairs to the D blast furnace at its Burns Harbor mill, also located in Indiana, following an explosion at the facility July 16. The repairs are expected to take a couple of weeks, ArcelorMittal spokesman Bill Steers said.

"The flexibility afforded by our ArcelorMittal USA assets allows the company to continue matching production with customer demand," Steers said in a statement. "We do not anticipate any significant changes in employment as a result of the production changes at these facilities."

The D blast furnace at Burns Harbor has a rated annual capacity of 2.48 million mt, according to the Association for Iron and Steel Technology. Burns Harbor is located about 40 miles southeast of Chicago along Lake Michigan.

Indiana Harbor, which is the largest integrated steelmaking facility in North America, has around 6.4 million st of annual steelmaking capacity, according to a company fact sheet. It is located roughly 20 miles southeast of Chicago.

ArcelorMittal's North American production in the second quarter of 2020 decreased 32.8% to 3.7 million mt from 5.5 million mt in the first quarter of the year, primarily due to weak demand driven by the coronavirus pandemic, particularly for the company's US and Canadian operations, it said July 30.

ArcelorMittal remains cautious in its outlook going forward, however the global steelmaker's core markets are showing signs of recovery, ArcelorMittal Chairman and CEO Lakshmi Mittal said in a call with industry analysts July 30.

"There are now signs of activity picking up, especially in regions where lockdowns have ended, but clearly it is prudent to remain cautious about the outlook. Against this context, we are examining what structural changes might be required to ensure the company is well configured to prosper in the coming years as demand recovers," Mittal said.

(S&P Global Platts)

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