German steelmaker ThyssenKrpp has announced that its blast furnace No. 2 in Duisburg-Schwelgern, Europe's biggest blast furnace, is back in operation after three months of a halt in production to carry out necessary modernization work. The company has also recommissioned the continuous caster No. 1 in Beeckerwerth, which has also been modernized. Its revamp took place in parallel with the work on the blast furnace No. 2 in order to minimize disruptions to the production chain.
ThyssenKrupp stated that up to the production stoppage in June the blast furnace had produced around 78 million mt of iron since it started operation 21 years ago.