ArcelorMittal Operations Hit by Coronavirus Outbreak
ArcelorMittal announced its decision to idle blast furnaces and other unts in many countries in order to align production with demand and to ensure safety of its employees in the wake of COVID-19 outbreak. The company announced the decision to idle blast furnace #4 at its Indiana Harbor steel mill in East Chicago. The steelmaker has also decided to cut production at its Dofasco mill in Hamilton in Ontario. The company has decided to blow down No.3 blast furnace at the mill, which is the smallest of three blast furnaces at the mill. In addition, it has also decided to take adequate steps to reduce production at its European facilities.
ArcelorMittal has idled blast furnace 3 at its Bremen site in Germany, which was only restarted in January after extended repairs.
The blast furnace at Asturias and facilities in Sestao in Spain will halt in the coming days, while the Aviles steel shop will work at half capacity. Galvanising lines at Asturias and Sagunto will be suspended.
ArcelorMittal will close a blast furnace each at its Fos-sur-Mer and Dunkirk plants in France
However, ArcelorMittal is the only firm Italy that is allowed to continue producing steel at its Taranto site in Italy after the government tightened measures on non-essential industrial activity over the weekend in its continuing fight against the spread of the coronavirus
ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih operation of Blooming-1, light section mill No. 3 of rolling shop No.1, central electrotechnical laboratory and electrical repair shop is almost completely stopped. Acting CEO said “While elaborating the preventive measures against COVID-19 on a governmental level it would be wrong just to copy practices of the USA or any other countries, not considering the situation in Ukraine and basic differences of economics. If the government stops operation of some industries sharply, which previously supported Ukraine’s economics efficiently; the whole country will feel it very fast. For example, Ukraine’s metallurgy is fully based on processing of its own iron ore. If excavation of iron ore in the context of the state of emergency is stopped, metallurgy will stop too. In addition, our company will not be able to work without imported coal, on which we depend completely. Stoppage of coke batteries, due to absence of coal, will lead to irreversible destruction. These logical chains are obvious, and there more examples like this one. That is why we rely a lot on reasonable decisions of the government, which would enable Ukraine’s metallurgy, a key industry of economics, to work in a stable way.”
Source : Strategic Research Institute