ArcelorMittal Brazil has refired its No. 3 blast furnace at its Tubarão facility in the southeastern state Espírito Santo. Davis Index had reported in September that the company is likely to restart this furnace in mid-October. Tubarão furnace was idled for almost seven months amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The company has decided to restart it following the recovery of steel demand in the country.
The standalone facility has an output capacity of 2.8mn mt of crude steel per year while in total Tubarao unit produced 6.3mn mt crude steel in 2019.
ArcelorMittal reduced production to adjust to weak steel demand in Brazil caused due to the adverse economic impact of the pandemic. Many customers of ArcelorMittal have resumed operations, and consumption has been improving in the past couple of months. The company aims to fulfil additional demand with supplies from this facility which will reach its optimal production levels within a month.
With this, ArcelorMittal now has all its three blast furnaces operational at Tubarao. The facility supplies HRC and slab for both overseas and the domestic market. The company restarted No. 2 blast furnace in July. Also, Usiminas, Gerdau and Sinobras facilities have resumed operations in line with a gradual increase in domestic steel demand, learnt Davis Index.