Russian steelmaker OAO Severstal has confirmed that it expects to temporarily shut down its electric arc furnace (EAF) in Mingo Junction, Ohio in February.
While confirming the early February restart of its blast furnace at Sparrows Point, Maryland, Severtsal also confirmed late Friday that it will be taking Severstal-Wheeling's Mingo Junction EAF offline in early to mid-February. The shutdown is expected to be temporary, but the company has not provided numbers of how many will be laid off nor the amount of time that the furnace offline be down. The blast furnace at Mingo Junction, which has been idled since mid-August, will also remain down.
United Steelworkers (USW) Local 1190 president Ken Aspenleiter lamented to press that Mingo Junction, one of the industry's most modern facilities, will have to be shut down for a period of time. While the plant could temporarily close as soon as February, Aspenleiter said that the order book has picked up some and the company expects enough business to carry the plant through February, with the latest word, according to Aspenleiter, being that the shutdown will come in March. The hot strip mill, which converts slabs to coils, will also be taken offline for a period of time in March, union officials say.
Russia's Severstal, which bought Wheeling-Pitt and changed its name to Severstal Wheeling when it bought its parent company, Esmark, in August, first shut down the Mingo Junction blast furnace and EAF furnaces in the third quarter for routine maintenance. However, due to the downturn in the economy, the blast furnace was not restarted and workers have been working on a week-to-week basis filling orders since October. Severstal began temporary layoffs across its US locations in December.