The Russian steelmaker Novolipetsk Steel (
NLMK) has announced that it has idled its blast furnace No. 2 due to deterioration in demand in the
pig iron market both in
Russia and abroad in the second quarter of 2012. The blast furnace with a capacity of 800,000 mt per year, making up six percent of the total
pig iron capacity at the Lipetsk plant, has been idled as of July 6 for a period of up to 60 days.
According to
NLMK's statement, this decrease in the output of commercial
pig iron will not impact the overall crude steel and rolled product output in the second half of 2012. The idling of the blast furnace in question will allow an increase in the loading efficiency for
NLMK's remaining blast furnace operations at its Lipetsk plant. The company's previously announced steel
production forecast for 2012 remains at around 15 million mt, up 30 percent compared to the previous year.