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ArcelorMittal to Restart Blast Furnace in France
01/11/2013 - Steel titan ArcelorMittal said Wednesday it's restarting one of its blast furnaces at a steel plant in Dunkerque, northern France due to a slight increase in demand from its customers, according to a MarketWatch.com report.
Steel titan ArcelorMittal said Wednesday it's restarting one of its blast furnaces at a steel plant in Dunkerque, northern France due to a slight increase in demand from its customers, according to a MarketWatch.com report.
The steel maker cautioned that the restart was due to a technical rise in demand stemming from customer needs to replenish depleted steel supplies. Nevertheless, it signals a positive move for the world's largest steelmaker which idled several blast furnaces last year due to protracted weakness in the European steel market and which is in the process of permanently shutting down four blast furnaces in Europe-two in Liege, Belgium and two in Florange, France, as a result of structural excess production capacity in the European Union.
The Luxembourg-based steelmaker said it will restart the 1 million metric-ton-a-year No. 2 blast furnace at Dunkerque during the week of Jan. 17 after having shut it down for planned maintenance in August 2012 due to weak demand…
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