ArcelorMittal recently indicated it’s going to resume operating Sestao and Gijon, its Spanish plants, by the end of September.
The plants were taken offline because the country’s COVID-19 outbreak caused steel demand to sink.
According to media reports, the electric-arc furnace (EAF) at the company’s Sestao steel plant will restart shortly, while blast furnace (BF) A at Gijon steelworks is being prepped to renew its production cycle by the end of the month.
The EAF at Sestao is capable of producing 300,000mt of hot-rolled steel coils and 160,000mt of pickled and oiled coils a year. According to ArcelorMittal Spain’s website, it planned to increase hot-rolled coil output to 400,000mt at the beginning of 2020, however, the COVID-19 pandemic pushed the upgrade to a later date.
Meanwhile, one of the Gijon facility’s two BFs, which has an annual crude steel output of 2.7mn mt, will soon be restarted. The second BF can also produce 2.5mn mt of steel a year and will be brought online by year’s end. Reports also suggest that ArcelorMittal is currently undertaking modernization and maintenance work at both plants.