ARCELORMITTAL STOPS ITS BLAST FURNACE AT DUNKERQUE

ArcellorMittal will idle a 1.5 million tonne per year blast furnace at its Dunkirk site. This is the fourth non-activity verified for the French plant.

The reason for this suspension was due to the fact that no activities were recorded was because it required marginally weaker real demand, specifically in the automotive sector due to ongoing supply chain problems.

According to the latest data from S&P Global Commodity Insights, the coil is declining based on the latest data. This means that the latest data indicate that coil is below the high of 1,460 EUR/mt recorded on March 18, i.e. above 960 EUR/mt, which represents an improvement for manufacturers and consumers, and gradually moves it away from historical highs.

Despite the demand and wholesale consumption recorded among distributors, final demand was low this year. Automotive steel has been hit by shortages of various components. Consignees have large stocks of coils due to excessive purchases two months ago that produced a great need for these items, but now they did not show much interest in this regard. The price was lower during the last three months due to disinterest and oversupply.

According to a commercial source in Italy, the next stoppage for the furnace located in Dunkirk would not be enough to solve the problems, thus increasing the complaints from the industrial sector. More active production cuts are needed.

One source has said that steel mills did the same during the 2020 confinement, as they announced production cuts and furnace shutdowns. In addition, it seems unclear whether or not they will restart, with some people saying they expect a recovery in a couple of months but others believe that by then the steel mills will have to keep their furnaces idle.

Now that the EU has increasingly stringent emissions policies, steel mills are introducing a reduction in their open spaces for gas used in furnaces. Some claim that it is difficult to manage the high costs added to fuel when fuel is not available.