ArcelorMittal Italia is set to restart Blast Furnace 2 at its Taranto site on Jan. 26 as the company aims to increase crude steel production to 5 million mt in 2021 from 3.4 million mt produced in 2020, union sources told S&P Global Platts.

The company has already restarted Smelter 1 this week, union sources said.

ArcelorMittal Italia initiates restart of blast furnace 2 at Taranto site
ArcelorMittal Italia initiates restart of blast furnace 2 at Taranto site

Blast furnace 2 and smelter 1 temporarily closed for Corona

Blast furnace 2 and smelter 1 had been temporarily closed as the corona virus depressed demand for steel and the company was adapting the blast furnace to safety standards required by Italian judges following a fatal accident in June 2015.

Of the company’s five blast furnaces, only blast furnaces 1 and 4 are currently fully operational and producing 14,000 mt/day of crude steel.

Work on blast furnace 2 was carried out by Ilva, which owns the site and leases it to ArcelorMittal Italia, at a total cost of about €10 million.

Largest blast furnace in Europe

Blast furnace 5 is the largest blast furnace in Europe with a production capacity of around 3.5 million mt/year and was shut down in 2015. Blast furnace 3 has a capacity of around 2 million mt/year of crude steel, but was shut down in 1994 and is to be dismantled.

Source: spglobal.com

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