ArcelorMittal Spain said in a statement Feb. 13 that it will take its halted blast furnace B at Aviles, Spain, offline for “several months” after failing to repair a production issue that started after a maintenance in 2025.
The unit will be cooled and fully halted so that the blast furnace can be completely cleaned out in order to allow a “safe restart at a later date,” the company said in the statement.
Aviles is Spain’s largest steel production site, with a capacity of 4.7 million metric tons/year via its two blast furnaces, a company spokesperson said Feb. 13, without providing a breakdown.
The fault in blast furnace B originated following a maintenance-related halt in September 2025, the spokesperson told S&P Global Energy.
Specialist operators have been working on the issues since October 2025, the spokesperson said, with the last attempt made Feb. 12, before taking the decision to empty out the unit.
According to a report in local press La Nueva Espana dated Feb. 10, the site has been operating at a reduced rate of around 20% since the issues. AM did not comment on the operating rate.
The company said in its statement that it will aim to “minimize the impact” and “protect the needs of its clients” during the unit’s time offline.
AM is the largest operator in terms of capacity in Spain at around 9 million mt/year, according to company data.
It is also in the process of expanding capacity while decarbonizing its production in Spain. Its Sestao EAF is carrying out upgrades to boost capacity from 1.1 million mt/year to 1.6 million mt/year, while the company is also installing a new 1.1 million mt/year EAF at the Gijon cluster, close to the Aviles site.
Both upgrades could be operational in 2026, according to company estimates.
A third decarbonization project, to build a 2.3 million mt/year hydrogen-fed direct reduced iron plant at Gijon was put on hold in November 2024 amid a slower-than-expected development of green hydrogen infrastructure.
Platts, part of S&P Global Energy, assessed hot-rolled coil CIF Antwerp at a midpoint $611.05/mt Feb. 12, up 5% from a month prior.
