ArcelorMittal says extent of fire damage at Spain’s Gijon steel plant still to be determined

ArcelorMittal said the company is yet to determine the extent of the damage caused by a fire at its blast furnace A at Gijon, Spain, in a statement released March 23.

“Work is ongoing to cool down the facility, so as to be able to access the furnace safely and assess the damage,” the company said.

“A first inspection has revealed that a breakout occurred in the crucible,” it said.

The company added that blast furnace B remains operational.

The fire occurred March 22 at 5:50 pm CET (1650 GMT) during a scheduled maintenance operation at the blast furnace, according to the company statement.

“An internal reaction occurred when hot metal came into contact with water in the hearth of the furnace. Said reaction forced some hot metal out of the furnace hearth wall and out of the tuyere (nozzle) which was going to be replaced. The cause of the presence of water in the hearth is still to be established,” ArcelorMittal said.

The internal emergency plan was immediately activated at the facility and the blast furnace personnel were rescued with no injuries

The fire was brought under control by 7:00 pm and was subsequently completely extinguished, the company said. No environmental impact was registered at the air quality monitoring stations, neither at those of ArcelorMittal’s own network nor at those of the regional authority in Gijon.

Blast furnace A was restarted in February after four months of inactivity to run at reduced rates in line with market conditions.

The two units, Spain’s largest steel site, have a capacity of 4.5 million mt/year.

Platts, part of S&P Global Commodity Insights, assessed hot-rolled coil at $890.34/mt ex-works south Europe March 23, up from a two-year low of $594.04/mt assessed on Nov. 21, 2022.

— Gianluca Baratti