Russia’s Tulachermet, a leading pig iron producer and exporter owned by Russia-based mining and metallurgical company Industrial Metallurgical Holding (IMH), is planning to shut down its blast furnace No. 3 for maintenance in March. According to preliminary information, the works will take one month. Earlier, the maintenance works had been scheduled for April-May. The blast furnace No. 3 is capable of producing 4,500 mt of pig iron per day.
According to the company’s statement, quoted by local Russian media, IMH is considering the option to decrease steel and rebar production at Tula Steel in order to be able to fulfil obligations on pig iron supplies. “The outlook of the merchant pig iron market is currently quite favorable. The demand from Chinese customers is recovering and the consumption in the US is growing. The prices for pig iron as well as for scrap keep strengthening in the global market. ... The inventories of merchant pig iron hit a historical minimum amid the long-term lack of procurement caused by speculations about the coronavirus,” IMH’s vice president of strategy and communications Sergey Frolov said.
However, some sources believe that Tulacherment will still ship less pig iron than usual in March, taking into account that the blast furnace which is scheduled for maintenance produces around 70 percent of the company’s pig iron allocation.