Ukraine-headquartered Metinvest group has announced the resumption of blast furnace (BF) No.4 at its subsidiary Azovstal. The company has suspended activities at the blast furnace due to reduced demand caused by Covid-19 related restrictions. During the shutdown, the equipment is said to be overhauled with investments amounted to UAH 21 million.
“Despite unfavorable market conditions and in particular, the reduced demand for steel caused by Covid-19 pandemic, we have effectively used shutdown time of our equipment, having rescheduled the major maintenance works for this period. As a result, the updated equipment is ready to re-start operations following the adaptive quarantine restrictions,” Enver Tskitishvili, the general director of Azovstal says.