Swedish specialty steel producer SSAB Europe has announced that it has started repair and maintenance work at one of the two blast furnaces at its Raahe site in Finland. SSAB Europe said that the operations at blast furnace No. 2 will be stopped for around eight weeks and the total cost is estimated to be around SEK 200 million ($22 million) in the first quarter of 2019.
According to the company statement, the repair started following the molten iron leakage at blast furnace No. 2 in January. SSAB Europe has also postponed the refurbishment of the furnace planned for summer 2020 until 2022 or 2023.
The negative result effects of the eight-week closure of the furnace will be lower capacity utilization and increased costs for logistics and repairs. The production loss partly will be compensated through the other blast furnaces of SSAB Europe and the blast furnaces of SSAB Special Steels in Oxelösund. Thus the impact on shipments during the first quarter will be limited.