ThyssenKrupp To Idle Blast Furnace Due To Muted Demand
02 Dicembre 2011 - 5:35PM
Dow Jones News
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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