Steel Mills
Cliffs Expected to Take 80-90 Day Outage on Cleveland No. 5 Furnace: Sources
Written by Michael Cowden
February 9, 2022
Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. is expected to take an approximately 80-90 day planned outage on the No. 5 blast furnace at its Cleveland Works starting in mid to late March, according to market participants.
The outage is expected to last until roughly mid-June. It is not expected to impact customers because the Cleveland-based steelmaker can stock slabs ahead of the outage and transfer orders to other mills as necessary, sources said.
Cliffs did not respond to requests for comment for this article. But the company said on its third-quarter earnings call that it planned an approximately $100 million upgrade and reline of the No. 5 furnace.
That work will allow Cliffs to charge more hot-briquetted iron (HBI) from its plant in Toledo, Ohio, into the furnace as well as increase its ability to use natural gas.
Cliffs is increasing use of HBI in its blast furnaces and of prime scrap in its basic oxygen furnaces to reduce its need for coke and to reduce the CO2 emissions associated with the coking process.
Cleveland has two furnaces: No. 5 and No. 6. The former has daily iron-making capacity of 4,350 tons and the latter daily capacity of 4,150 tons, according to SMU’s blast furnace status table.
Market reaction to the news was muted. Steel is readily available amid short lead times and falling prices, and so even an extended outage is not expected to create any big waves in the market, sources said.
That’s a sharp change from a year ago, when even brief outages could cause near panic amid soaring prices, lean inventories and extremely limited availability from domestic mills, some noted.
By Michael Cowden, Michael@SteelMarketUpdate.com
Michael Cowden
Read more from Michael CowdenLatest in Steel Mills
ArcelorMittal posts solid results as commissioning of Calvert EAF begins
AM/NS Calvert has begun commissioning its new electric-arc furnace, with plans to reach its full annual run rate of 1.65 million short tons a year from now.
Tampa Steel Conference: Tanners on rising capacities and storms brewing across steel
There's a lot of production waiting to come online
USS idles “B” battery at Clairton following explosion
U.S. Steel has idled its "B" Battery at its Clairton Coke Works near Pittsburgh following a “release of excess pressure” inside a section of the battery on Feb. 5.
ArcelorMittal to start building Calvert NGO electrical steel line this year
ArcelorMittal announced on Thursday that it will begin the construction of its new $1.2-billion electrical steel mill in Alabama later this year. The steelmaker said it is proceeding with plans to build the new greenfield mill near its existing AM/NS joint venture in Calvert, Ala. The ArcelorMittal Calvert plant will have an annealing pickling line, […]
AISI: US steel shipments rise in December
Domestic steel shipments increased month over month and year on year in December, according to the latest data from the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI). US steel mills shipped 7,145,016 short tons (st) in December, up 0.9% from 7,082,921 st in December 2023 and 6.6% higher than 6,702,557 st in November 2024. For the full-year […]