ArcelorMittal Europe resumed production from its Asturias (Gijón) blast furnace (BF) A on September 25, according to an announcement by the company.
The recent announcements mark the resumption of more than 10mn mt of annual steelmaking capacity from ArcelorMittal’s European facilities:
| Country | Blast Furnace | Capacity |
| France | Fos-sur-Mer BF#1 | 2.5mn mt |
| Dunkerque BF#3 | 3mn mt | |
| Germany | Bremen BF#3 | 1.2mn mt |
| Spain | Sestao EAF | 1.4mn mt |
| Gijón BF#A | 2.4mn mt |
Most of these facilities had been idled since March and April in response to decimated COVID-19 afflicted end-use steel consumption.
In most cases, ArcelorMittal had highlighted the restart of steelmaking capacity to cover the relining of 2.3mn mt per Ghent blast furnace B. That said, the annualized capacity restarts from its other European facilities more than outweigh the temporary outage from the Ghent works.
The Gijón facility includes one coal yard, one iron ore yard, one coke oven, two blast furnaces, one steel plant, one heavy plate mill, one wire rod mill, and one rail mill. While the restarts are positive for steelmaking raw materials consumption, market participants are concerned about the negative impact on finished steel prices.