Steel Mills
USS's Mon Valley No. 3 BF Could Stay Idled Through November
Written by David Schollaert
September 22, 2022
US Steel Corp.’s month-long maintenance outage on the No. 3 blast furnace at Mon Valley Works near Pittsburgh is expected to be completed on Saturday, Sept. 24, a company spokeswoman confirmed to SMU.
Once complete, the blast furnace is expected to remain idle for the next month or so in response to declining demand and market conditions, sources familiar with the matter told SMU.
When asked for comment on the potential idling, US Steel said that “market conditions will dictate if it is restarted.”
The blast furnace was taken offline on Aug. 30—pulled forward by more than a month—for shotcrete (sprayed concrete) reline and maintenance, a significantly shorter and less expensive process than a full reline.
Mon Valley Works has two blast furnaces: No. 1 and No. 3. The No. 1 furnace has a daily ironmaking capacity of approximately 3,200 tons. The No. 3 furnace has a daily capacity of approximately 2,900 tons.
The furnaces are located at US Steel’s Edgar Thomson plant in Braddock, Pa. That facility makes slabs and rails them to the company’s Irvin Plant in West Mifflin, Pa., where they are rolled into sheet.
If the latest idling stands true, this would be the third in a series of idlings this month, following the temporary idling of the No. 5 tin line and the No. 8 blast furnace at Gary Works in Indiana.
The Pittsburgh-based steelmaker has said weaker demand and increased imports were to blame for the two temporary idlings.
The potential idling of No. 3 at Mon Valley Works comes on the back of lower third-quarter earnings guidance—down nearly 50% sequentially and 60% year-on-year—while negotiations for a new labor contract between the steelmaker and the United Steelworkers union seem to be at an impasse, according to a Sept. 16 USW bargaining update.
By David Schollaert, David@SteelMarketUpdate.com
David Schollaert
Read more from David SchollaertLatest in Steel Mills
Millett sees tariffs, CORE case benefiting SDI
Steel Dynamics' top exec thinks Trump’s tariff policies, as well as the results from the recent CORE case, will prove advantageous to the Fort Wayne, Ind.-based steelmaker and aluminum company.
USW digs in on opposition to USS-Nippon deal
“We remain deeply concerned about the national and economic security implications of the subject transaction,” the union stated in the letter dated April 21.
SDI’s Q1 earnings slump on-year, but up sequentially
SDI earnings slip in first quarter year over year, but are up sequentially.
POSCO inks MoU with Hyundai on Louisiana EAF mill
POSCO has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Hyundai Motor Group that includes an equity investment in Hyundai’s previously announced EAF mill set to be built in Louisiana.
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."