Ispat Iscor recently commenced routine repairs to one of the blast furnaces at its Vanderbijlpark steel mill, which was to idle the vessel for approximately seven days. The company said the repair work was required because blast furnace C had developed a localized hot spot, as a result of damage to a small section of the vessel’s refractory lining.

Ispat Iscor's corporate affairs executive, Phaldie Kalam, said the repair required the draining of liquid metal from the furnace and patching approximately a square meter of the vessel with a new refractory lining and an outer shell.

"While we expect a production loss of some 35,000 tonnes of liquid iron during the repair program, we remain confident that the reduced volumes can be made up before year end."

Kalam said that to ensure customer orders are not impacted by the downtime on the blast furnace, production would be increased on one of Vanderbijlpark's other furnaces. He confirmed that an expert from The LNM Group's Romanian operation was on site providing specialist advice on the blast furnace repair, as part of LNM's ongoing support for its local subsidiary.

The cost of the repair work is estimated at R5 million, although the full financial impact of the downtime is still being quantified.

Kalam also confirmed that the company had simultaneously carried out routine maintenance on blast furnace D, but that this vessel had only been out of commission for approximately 30 hours. The blast furnace has been returned to normal production and is now fully operational.

Liquid iron production at Vanderbijlpark is normally around 2.9 million tonnes per annum.