Europe’s leading steelmaker, ArcelorMittal, has postponed the restart of steelmaking operations at its plant in Sestao, Spain, in the face of poor market fundamentals, the company told Fastmarkets on Thursday September 1.
The producer stopped operations at the electric-arc-furnace (EAF) based steelmaking plant in the middle of August for scheduled maintenance. Production was expected to resume this week, but ArcelorMittal has decided to postpone the restart, a spokesperson told Fastmarkets.
The company could not say when operations at the mill would restart.
“Our Sestao plant did not resume production after its summer maintenance stoppage. We cannot foresee how long the stoppage will last. It will depend on market recovery, mainly,” the spokesperson said. “The market backdrop in Europe, with consumer confidence at very low levels and rising import levels, are the reasons behind this decision.”
ArcelorMittal Sestao has installed capacityfor about 2 million tpy of crude steel from its one EAF. The plant manufactures hot-rolled strip steel.
The European hot-rolled coil market has been in decline since April, with the price dropping non-stop amid overstocking and poor demand from end-users.
This week, however, European steelmakers have gradually started to increase the HRC price on account of a substantial increase in production costs, notably for electricity and gas.
Published by: Julia Bolotova
