Canada-based steel producer Algoma Steel has provided an update further to the incident on January 20 at its coke-making plant when a structure supporting utilities piping collapsed. The company is actively assessing coke-making capacity, while limited production has resumed at its three coke-production units.
In addition, at the time of the incident, the blast furnace operations were temporarily suspended for safety reasons. Upon the normal course of resumption of iron production, Algoma experienced issues at the blast furnace related to other utilities supplying the facility as an unexpected consequence of the coke-making incident. As a result, the blast furnace was stopped, and work is underway to restart the furnace. The company is evaluating the potential operational impact of the blast furnace being offline and currently expects to resume production within two weeks. Algoma expects some impact on shipments, the extent of which will depend on the timeline to resume blast furnace operations.
The company’s plate/strip mill and cold mill operations remain unaffected by the incident, as does the electric arc furnace construction. Algoma currently believes that it can source adequate coke from third-party suppliers to augment coke inventory on site.
