Starting from 4 a.m. on March 16 the Piombino, Livorno-based blast furnace of Italian steelmaker Lucchini will be turned off for 32 hours due to lack of raw materials. The company stated that in the meantime it will carry out maintenance works. This is the third halt of operations at Lucchini's blast furnace in the last three months.
The latest halt has been caused by the delay of an iron ore pellet cargo coming from Brazil, which is not going to reach the Italian coast before May 26. In order to avoid such a long delay, another cargo is on the way from Trieste, Italy carrying 8,000 mt of raw material.
In a press statement, labor unions at Lucchini have stressed the need for the company to choose a new CEO as soon as possible. "We need a new CEO to take the helm and trace the route. At present, we are consistently losing market shares," they stated.