Posted on 18 Jun 2021
While steel supply has been critically short in Europe since autumn last year, mill groups like ArcelorMittal and thyssenkrupp have nevertheless still undertaken relines at major blast furnaces.
At the closing session of the Kallanish European Steel Markets conference on Thursday, a question from the audience suggested the moves might be coordinated.
“No, there is no conspiracy to it,” replied Laurent Plasman, head of operational marketing of ArcelorMittal’s flat products operations in Europe. The company is big in Europe and hence needs to carry out larger maintenance at some site or other every year, he noted. Most recently, it undertook a reline of a big BF in Gent, which was restarted in March. “We would have wished not to have it and leave the market to competitors,” Plasman said. “A reline in a high cycle is painful; we all want to make money with steel produced and sold.”
Along similar lines, Martin Stillger of thyssenkrupp’s distribution unit, Materials Services, answered on behalf of the group’s steelmaking unit. Tk Steel will start shutting down one of its Duisburg BFs next month for a three-month reline. Speaking for his colleagues from the mill operations, he stated that “we had postponed the measure already, so it is now or never if you want to keep the asset. It has nothing to do with the market scenario”.
Source:Kallanish
