German steelmaker ThyssenKrupp AG (TKA.XE) said Friday it plans to temporarily idle one of its blast furnaces at its main steel plant in western Germany, in response to muted demand in an uncertain economic environment.

In a written statement, the company said it plans to idle blast furnace 9 at its Duisburg plant for around 180 days in early 2012.

It added that the costs of the outage, during will it will carry out relining works at the facility that were originally planned for 2014, will be approximately EUR36.5 million.

"The reason for pulling forward [the relining works] is the presently weaker demand for flat steel products," ThyssenKrupp said.

Earlier Friday, the company said persisting uncertainty over the ongoing sovereign debt crisis in Europe are weighing on demand, adding that it expects to post losses in its steel business in the first quarter of its 2012 fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30.

The move to idle the blast furnace comes after peers have already taken capacity out of the market. ArcelorMittal (MT), the world's largest steelmaker by output, in October warned of falling demand from steel customers, prompting it to idle some of its production capacities in Europe.

ThyssenKrupp executive board member Edwin Eichler earlier Friday told reporters the idled blast furnace could be restarted in May.

In the event of a demand recovery before the blast furnace can resume crude steel output, ThyssenKrupp will tap existing inventories to meet steel consumption, the company said.

-By Jan Hromadko, Dow Jones Newswires; +49 69 29 725 503; jan.hromadko@dowjones.com

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