German steel producer Salzgitter has announced that it will halt a 600,000 mt blast furnace due to lack of demand. At the site of Salzgitter, in Lower Saxony, the steel producer will continue to work with two blast furnaces with a combined capacity of 4 million mt per year.
Salzgitter’s is only the latest in a series of similar announcements by other European steelmakers due to the ongoing difficult economic situation. ArcelorMittal has cut outputs in Krakow (Poland), Asturias (Spain), Bremen and Eisenhüttenstadt (Germany), Dunkirk (France), as well as in Taranto (Italy).
Recently, SSAB announced the shutdown of a blast furnace in Raahe, Finland, for a period of 4-6 weeks. This, together with the blast furnace that was already stopped in mid-September in Oxelösund (Sweden), has a capacity of 1.8 million mt.
US Steel Kosice has halted blast furnace No. 2 at its site in Slovakia. Liberty Steel will temporarily reduce steel production by 20 percent at the former Czech-based ArcelorMittal Ostrava plant, which has a crude steel production capacity of 2.7 million mt per year.
Finally, Italian group Arvedi has announced that its plant in Cremona will reduce the production of coils by 70 percent in November and December.