In two European plants of the ArcelorMittal group, production was interrupted due to an accident-explosion at two blast furnaces in Spain - Gijón and in France - Dunkirk.
The capacity of both furnaces is at the level of approx. 6 million tons per year.
It is another complication for customers after already long delivery dates. Currently, delivery dates from ArcelorMittal are approx. 3-4 months compared to the usual 2 months. These production problems will persist even in the 3rd quarter of 2023, as the Eastern Division ArcelorMittal Poland planned to take more than 100,000 tons of entrance slabs in 2Q/2023 from these production plants. This material will have to be ordered elsewhere (outside Europe), which means an extension of delivery dates to customers.
The manufacturers do not want to resume production at blast furnaces that were shut down in the past - lack of orders and lack of confidence in market growth, expensive energy and emission allowances (of approx. 100 EUR/t of finished product). And so the only solution is to extend the delivery date when imports from third countries are currently weak.
The situation with the availability of steel coils is not helped by the critical situation at Tata Steel IJmuiden (the management decided to declare force majeure). Thanks to the unsuccessful reconstruction from last year, production is at 50% of the capacity before the reconstruction. The relocation of orders to other manufacturers is also supported by a partial recovery in the automotive industry.
Josef Sklenář, ALFUN a.s.
In two European plants of the ArcelorMittal group, production was interrupted due to an accident-explosion at two blast furnaces in Spain - Gijón and in France - Dunkirk.
The capacity of both furnaces is at the level of approx. 6 million tons per year.
It is another complication for customers after already long delivery dates. Currently, delivery dates from ArcelorMittal are approx. 3-4 months compared to the usual 2 months. These production problems will persist even in the 3rd quarter of 2023, as the Eastern Division ArcelorMittal Poland planned to take more than 100,000 tons of entrance slabs in 2Q/2023 from these production plants. This material will have to be ordered elsewhere (outside Europe), which means an extension of delivery dates to customers.
The manufacturers do not want to resume production at blast furnaces that were shut down in the past - lack of orders and lack of confidence in market growth, expensive energy and emission allowances (of approx. 100 EUR/t of finished product). And so the only solution is to extend the delivery date when imports from third countries are currently weak.
The situation with the availability of steel coils is not helped by the critical situation at Tata Steel IJmuiden (the management decided to declare force majeure). Thanks to the unsuccessful reconstruction from last year, production is at 50% of the capacity before the reconstruction. The relocation of orders to other manufacturers is also supported by a partial recovery in the automotive industry.
Josef Sklenář, ALFUN a.s.
