Arcelor to reduce production in Europe by 17% as blast furnaces stop

this reduction Asturias Can reach 400,000 to 600,000 tons It’s in the next quarter, where the group first expects bakery A’s inactivity in Gijón to continue.

Veriña’s two blast furnaces were already producing less than 70% of their maximum capacity, which was estimated at a total of 4.7 million tons/year.

The company does not plan to import slabs (semi-finished products) from other plants this time. To compensate for the lower availability of pig iron, as has been done in other cases when a furnace in the region was shut down, as the decline in demand and the strong inflow of low-priced imports created an oversupply of finished products in the country. European market.

Geert Van Poelvoorde, CEO of ArcelorMittal Europe, said in a letter Wednesday to all his employees:customer trust levels are currently lower than those recorded during the covid crisis in 2020The same was stated yesterday from multinational sources quoted by Reuters. In his letter to Arcelor’s European staff, Van Poelvoorde said the steel industry faces “the real threat of a prolonged recession in Europe from the energy crisis”.

In addition to the shutdown of four blast furnaces in Spain, France, Germany and Poland, the company has extended the downtime of the Sestao steelworks and will also paralyze the direct reduction of its iron ore (DRI) plant in Hamburg. Other facilities in France, Germany and Luxembourg will take various harmonization measures. In Spain, the blast furnace shutdown will have a gradual effect, at least for the workshops and various finishing plants at the Avilés, Sagunto, Etxebarri, Lesaka and Legasa factories.