Belgian flat rolled steel producer NLMK La Louviere has fully restarted production after having had to halt operations following an accident 10 days ago, a company spokesperson told S&P Global Commodity Insights on April 17.
NLMK began restarting the plant on April 15, with production returning fully to normal on April 16.
The halt followed the detection of smoke in an electrical substation on April 5, which led to a black out and is still under investigation.
Located in Belgium, NLMK La Louviere focuses on the production of hot- and cold-rolled coil for automotive industry, general construction, and pressure vessels manufacturers.
The company has a production capacity of 1.7 million mt/year of hot-rolled steel and 1.3 million mt/year of pickled steel.
The Belgium mill, is part of NLMK Belgium Holdings, a joint venture between Belgian investment fund SOGEPA and Russian mining and steel company NLMK.
Apart from La Louviere, NBH owns strip mill NLMK Strasbourg (France), NLMK Manage Steel Center (Belgium), and plate producers NLMK Clabecq (Belgium), NLMK DanSteel (Denmark) and NLMK Verona (Italy).
NLMK La Louviere last year also underwent a halt in its hot strip mill for few months following an accident.
Overall, the European flat steel market has been weak recently, with some sources predicting that this will lead to production cuts.
Platts, part of S&P Global Commodity Insights, assessed HRC in northern Europe down Eur5/mt on the day at Eur630/mt ($669.564/mt) ex-works Ruhr April 16, marking a decline of 8.7% since the start of 2024.
