According to operational reports, the restart of Blast Furnace B at ArcelorMittal Gent, Belgium, will be delayed due to heavy snowfall in the region.
A furnace with a capacity of 2.3 million tons of liquid steel per year has been idle since September last year, first under the pretext of replacing the lining, and then due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Due to the sharp increase in steel demand in the EU, the blast furnace in Ghent was scheduled to be restarted by mid-February.
Lakshmi Mittal's company has not yet announced a new restart date.
As a reminder, in parallel, ArcelorMittal is preparing to reopen blast furnace # 2 at the ArcelorMittal Italia (formerly Ilva) steel plant located in Toronto, Italy.
The launch of these two furnaces would add at least 5 million tonnes of liquid steel per year to European steel production.
Earlier today it was reported that the second largest steel company in Germany, Salzgitter, has announced force majeure for the supply of metal products due to bad weather and a traffic collapse in the country.
Bad weather continues to attack Europe. Heavy snowfall hit Turkey, Germany and Greece. Ferry service through the Bosphorus has been interrupted in Istanbul. At airports - flight delays. Now the cold front is shifting towards Cyprus. According to forecasters, this weather will last for another week.
