West Chester, Ohio-based AK Steel announced Monday that the blast furnace at its Middletown Works facility in Ohio experienced a mechanical failure in the charging apparatus internal to the furnace on June 22. The company said that there were no injuries and it is continuing to assess the situation and investigate the root cause of the incident.
AK Steel said the blast furnace was taken offline to prevent any damage to the furnace and to position the furnace for the start-up once the repairs are completed. Prior to the completion of the repairs, the company will utilize its Butler Works electric arc furnace (in Pennsylvania) and its Ashland Works blast furnace in Kentucky) and, to the extent necessary, purchase merchant carbon slabs to service its customers.
At this time, the company said that it does not have a specific estimate of the cost or an exact date for completion of the repairs, though it currently expects to complete the repairs as early as sometime in July, though the repairs may be completed later in Q3.
The company currently expects this outage will impact both the Q2 and Q3 and financial results.