Steel Mills
AHMSA Restarts Furnace Following Major Upgrades
Written by David Schollaert
April 5, 2022
Mexican flat-rolled steelmaker Altos Hornos de México (AHMSA) has restarted its No. 5 blast furnace following a planned two-week upgrade outage, a company spokesman said.
The 130 million pesos ($6.5 million) investment included upgrades to its continuous caster, coking plant ovens, service areas, and loading systems.
Maintenance to AHMSA’S No. 5 blast furnace – its largest – was aimed at increasing slab capabilities to meet strong domestic and international demand, the company said.
Despite an electrical fire last week that damaged to No. 5’s air blower, the project was not derailed, and the upgrade was completed on time.
AHMSA said the latest improvements didn’t include the company’s No. 6 furnace that’s been idled since 2020 because market conditions, according to SMU’s blast furnace status table.
The No. 5 furnace has capacity of 1.91 million tons per year and the No. 6 furnace annual capacity of 1.27 million tons, according to the Association for Iron and Steel Technology’s 2021 Directory of Iron and Steel Plants.
AHMSA makes hot-rolled coil, cold-rolled coil, plate, tinplate and structural shapes, per its website.
By David Schollaert, David@SteelMarketUpdate.com
David Schollaert
Read more from David SchollaertLatest in Steel Mills
Cliffs idles Steelton, Riverdale, and Conshohocken operations
Cliffs has idled facilities in Riverdale, Ill., and Conshohocken and Steelton, Pa.
Radius loss narrows, volumes climb in ‘healthy’ West Coast market
Stronger steel demand in the Western US, rising scrap flows, and improved rolling mill utilization drove sequential gains for Portland, Ore.-based Radius Recycling.
AISI: Raw steel production backs off multi-year high
US raw steel output edged lower last week after hitting a multi-year high in mid-June, according to the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI).
Private equity firm Atlas Holdings to acquire Evraz North America
Atlas Holdings said it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Evraz North America (Evraz NA). The Greenwich, Conn.-based private equity firm said it expects the deal for the Chicago-based steelmaker to close in the second quarter of 2025 subject to various closing condition.
Granite City Works must remain open and other terms of the Nippon-USS deal
SEC documents also name Trump specifically as having veto power certain decisions are part of the “Golden Share” provision.