Germany's second largest steelmaker Salzgitter AG next week plans to idle one of three blast furnaces at its Flachstahl flats producing unit, located near Salzgitter in Germany.
Salzgitter will idle blast furnace C, the company's smallest blast furnace which has a daily capacity of 1,800-1,900 mt of pig iron, due to a slump in steel demand from customers in the automotive sector which has been hit hard by the economic downturn.
The company said operations at the blast furnace would be resumed when demand picked up. Meanwhile, Salzgitter did not comment on how its workforce would be affected by the shutdown.