Severstal North America to idle steelmaking facilities at Sparrows Point

Wednesday, 09 June 2010 12:15:58 (GMT+2)

Severstal North America, a division of the Russian steel producer Severstal, plans to idle for a period of 30 days beginning late this month the primary steelmaking facilities at its Maryland-located  Sparrows Point plant.

Accordingly, Sparrows Point's primary steelmaking facilities, including the L blast furnace, which is the third largest in North America, a basic oxygen furnace and two continuous casters, will be idled between late June and July 1 this year for a period of about 30 days in response to weakened market conditions and due to excess inventory of materials at the plant.

Meanwhile, the finishing side of the mill will continue to operate. Sparrows Point will fulfill customers' orders by using slabs from its own stocks, from the Severstal Warren and Severstal Dearborn plants, as needed, as well as from mills in Russia.

Sparrows Point's primary steelmaking facilities employ about 600 people, but the exact number to be placed on temporary layoff has not been determined.

 previous article  /  next article