Steel Mills
Electrical Outage at ArcelorMittal Burns Harbor Triggers Emergency Flare System
Written by Sandy Williams
February 6, 2019
ArcelorMittal Burns Harbor called firefighters to help control a towering blaze from a coke oven battery late Tuesday night.
ArcelorMittal spokeswoman Mary Beth Holford said the plant “experienced a high voltage power interruption for a short duration” about 10:05 p.m. Tuesday. The outage triggered an emergency flare system that burned off excess coke oven gas, resulting in flames that were visible from U.S. 12.
Holford said the plant required about 12 hours to re-establish operations. “No employees or contractors were injured during the incident, and the interruption will not impact ArcelorMittal Burns Harbor’s ability to meet customer demand,” she said.
Nick Meyer, spokesman for Northern Indiana Public Service Co., said two outages of less than a minute duration occurred—one at 10:05 and a second at 5:00 a.m. on Wednesday.
“While initial assessments are not showing issues on NIPSCO’s system, indicating it operated as designed, we’re working with ArcelorMittal to help pinpoint the root cause of these two interruptions,” Meyer said.
A firefighter from Porter, Ind., was transported to the hospital and treated for heat exhaustion.
Sandy Williams
Read more from Sandy WilliamsLatest in Steel Mills
CRU: Tata Steel looks to shed 1,600 jobs in the Netherlands
The company said, “The challenging demand conditions in Europe driven by geopolitical developments, trade and supply chain disruptions and escalating energy costs have affected the operating costs and financial performance."
Reports: Federal funding for Cliffs’ project could be slashed
Elon Musk's DOGE is determining which Department of Energy grants to advance and which ones to terminate, according to several media outlets
Trump still against selling USS to Japanese firm: Report
Despite ordering a new review of Nippon Steel’s bid for U.S. Steel, President Trump said he is still against selling USS to a Japanese company, according to media reports.
Algoma looks to sell more steel in Canada in wake of Trump’s tariffs
The Canadian steelmaker said its absorbing higher tariffs as it moves forward.
Ancora abandons plan to take over leadership of USS
Investment firm Ancora Holdings Group has halted its play for U.S. Steel's board, citing Nippon Steel’s proposed bid for USS “gaining momentum.”