ArcelorMittal to shut down blast furnace in East Chicago

ArcelorMittal, a steelmaker with headquarters in Luxembourg, has announced plans to shut down one of three operational blast furnaces at its Indiana Harbor steelmaking plant in East Chicago, Indiana. 

According to an article in the Duluth News Tribune newspaper based in Duluth, Minnesota, the blast furnace is shutting down for maintenance. An ArcelorMittal spokesperson told the Duluth News Tribune that the blast furnace in East Chicago will restart when demand for steel increases. 

The blast furnace in East Chicago “has reached the end of its current campaign and requires significant capital investment for continued operation” the spokesperson told Duluth News Tribune. The 35 people who work on the blast furnace will be reassigned to other duties at the location in the meantime.

ArcelorMittal’s Minorca mine in Virginia supplies the East Chicago blast furnaces with fluxed iron-bearing pellets, but one less blast furnace at the location won’t change operations at Minorca, the company told to the Duluth News Tribune. 

Like other steel companies, ArcelorMittal is facing low steel prices, ArcelorMittal CEO Lakshmi Mittal reported in a news release on the company’s third-quarter financial results that came out on Nov. 7.

“As anticipated, we continued to face tough market conditions in the third quarter, characterized by low steel prices coupled with high raw-material costs. In these markets, we remain focused on our own initiatives to improve performance and our priority is to reduce costs, adapt production and focus on ensuring the business remains cash flow positive,” Mittal reported in the company’s third-quarter financial results.