A smelter in Serbia's Smederevo is preparing to shut down one of its two blast furnaces due to low steel prices and will restart steelmaking when market conditions permit, sources at HBIS Serbia said.
The plant in Smederevo can produce about 2.2 million tons of steel per year with its two furnaces, the shutdown blast furnace has a capacity of about 900 thousand tons per year.
HBIS is the first European manufacturer to openly shut down its furnace - most other plants appear to still be waiting for massive shutdowns to begin amid soaring energy costs and low steel prices.
ArcelorMittal this week suspended rolling operations in Dunkirk and moved employees to short-term work in Bremen, but has not yet announced a shutdown of the furnaces.
According to industry sources, German manufacturer Thyssenkrupp is also shutting down its hot-dip galvanizing line for maintenance, although the company has not announced this.
Tata Steel Ijmuiden is stockpiling more slabs ahead of the blast furnace shutdown next year instead of selling coils at lower prices.
Europe weighted average prices for hot rolled coil have fallen to 750 - 800 euros per tonne from 1500 euros at the end of March, while the price of natural gas soared to almost 2000 euros per thousand cubic meters. TTF natural gas prices approach EUR 180/MWh from EUR 81.5/MWh on 13 June.
