Report: ArcelorMittal Blast Furnace in East Chicago Goes Down
08/19/2013 - A blast furnace has gone down at ArcelorMittal Indiana Harbor, the largest steelmaking complex in North America, according to a report for the Times of Northwest Indiana.
The outage was not scheduled, spokesman Bill Steers said. A turbo blower, which blows air through the blast furnace during the steelmaking process, failed last week.
No one was injured when the huge steam turbine-driven blower stopped blasting air into the No. 3 furnace at Indiana Harbor West on the southern shore of Lake Michigan.
Luxembourg-based ArcelorMittal, the world's largest steelmaker, has identified spares and the necessary repair equipment, Steers said. Repairs are underway, and the furnace will resume normal operations once the repairs are completed.
The company is taking advantage of the shutdown to do planned maintenance repairs earlier than scheduled. The outage is not expected to affect shipments at a time when U.S. steel mills are suffering from overcapacity of more than 20 percent, according to the American Iron and Steel Institute…
