Steel Mills

Furnaces Partially Restored at Gary Works Following Last Week’s Flood

December 3, 2019

Service has been restored to the largest of the blast furnaces, and a second furnace will be back online shortly, following a water pipe break Nov. 27 that forced U.S. Steel to shut down all three operating furnaces at its Gary Works mill. In an update on Monday, a spokesperson said the third furnace is expected to be restarted later this week. Customers should not be adversely impacted by the disruption in production, the company said.

“On Nov. 27, U.S. Steel reported a service water leak that caused flooding at our Gary Works facility near our blast furnace operations. As a precaution, we proactively stopped the blast furnaces and steel production to protect our people, assets and the environment until the issue was resolved,” the company reported in a statement last week.

The company noted some discoloration at the water leak outfall and notified environmental authorities. “Additional water sampling is ongoing to ensure compliance with environmental regulatory requirements, though we have not noted any exceedances in our testing to date,” said a U.S. Steel spokesperson.

Located on the south shore of Lake Michigan, Gary Works has both steelmaking and finishing facilities. The mill has an annual raw steel making capacity of 7.5 million tons per year and produces hot rolled, cold rolled and galvanized sheet products.

U.S. Steel has targeted Gary Works and Mon Valley Works for asset improvements to complement its new minority ownership in Big River Steel.