ArcelorMittal to restart fire-struck Dunkirk blast furnace at end of May

ArcelorMittal expects to restart its blast furnace BF4 at Dunkirk, France, at about the end of May, a company spokesperson told S&P Global Commodity Insights on April 20.

Operation of the 3 million mt/year blast furnace stopped March 30 after an ignition-caused fire.

ArcelorMittal Dunkerque is equipped with three blast furnaces with a combined maximum output of 7 million mt/year. No. 4 is the largest. BF No. 3 can make 1.5 million mt/year and was restarted recently after being idled since mid-September 2022. The mill’s other furnace — No.2 — was stopped permanently in December 2022 as it had reached the end of its service life.

The ArcelorMittal spokesperson told S&P Global that ArcelorMittal France has restarted in April its 2 million mt blast furnace at Fos sur Mer. It was shut in December due to high energy costs and low demand.

The majority of the European mills have not been offering coil since mid-April due to effects of technical issues, planned maintenances and full order books. The steelmakers are likely to return to the market with offers in May, according to market sources.

The tight European domestic supply failed to prevent a price decline, as competitive import offers have allowed buyers to substitute required volumes. In addition, demand from both end-users and distributors remained slow with deals settled for only smaller lots of coil or for material traded back to back.

“The sentiment is negative now, but it could have been much worse if the volumes were there,” a service center source said. “When mills return, we most likely will see some decline, most likely hot-rolled coil prices would drop to Eur800/mt ex-works [Ruhr], but the price still would be high enough to cover costs and give mills their margins.”

Platts assessed domestic prices for hot-rolled coil in Northwest Europe at Eur840/mt ex-works Ruhr on April 20, down by Eur20/mt on week and down by Eur15/mt since the start of the month. Platts is part of S&P Global.

Platts assessed prices for imported hot-rolled coil in the region at Eur720/mt CIF Antwerp, down by Eur20/mt week on week and by Eur70/mt since start of April.

Author Annalisa Villa, annalisa.villa@spglobal.com, Maria Tanatar, maria.tanatar@spglobal.com