Turkish steelmaker Kardemir has announced that it reignited its blast furnace No. 4 on September 30, after 120 days. The blast furnace was stopped on June 10 for maintenance works.
The production capacity of the blast furnace has been increased by 10 percent from 450,000 mt to 550,000 mt, with an investment of TRY 85 million ($15 million). Hüseyin Soykan, general manager of Kardemir, said that he is confident that this capacity will be utilized to the full.
Kardemir expects to complete its investment in capacity increase at the converter No. 2, the new lime plant and the continuous casting machine No. 4.
The company announced in mid-September that it has decided to build a new blast furnace with an annual capacity of 1 million mt within the scope of its investment plan to reach an annual capacity of 3.5 million mt.