By Alex MacDonald
LONDON- Steel titan ArcelorMittal (MT) shut another two blast
furnaces during the third quarter in response to weak European
steel demand, the company's chief financial officer said
Wednesday.
The Luxembourg-based steelmaker is currently operating 14 of its
25 furnaces in Europe, Aditya Mittal told journalists on a call.
This compares with 16 out of 25 furnaces that were in operation as
of the end of July.
Mr. Mittal said the world's largest steelmaker has temporarily
idled a blast furnace in Dunkerque, France and another in Asturias,
Spain to carry out maintenance amid weak steel demand.
However, he noted that "As the market improves, we will bring
those two furnaces back on in a short period of time."
He said that the optimization program continues to proceed with
plans to permanently shut down 4 blast furnaces. This would bring
ArcelorMittal's total number of European furnaces down to 21 from
25, he said.
The company has secured the rights to shut two blast furnaces in
Liege, Belgium and plans to shut another two furnaces in Florange,
France if the French government fails to find a buyer for the
furnaces over the next two months.
"The French government is trying to find a buyer in the next 60
days. If that does not succeed, we would close those" furnaces, Mr.
Mittal said. The two Florange blast furnaces are able to produce
2.8 million metric tons of crude steel annually while the two Liege
blast furnaces are able to produce 3.1 million tons of crude steel
annually.
-Write to Alex MacDonald at alex.macdonald@dowjones.com
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