Cleveland-Cliffs will begin the ramp-up of Blast Furnace No. 7 in Indiana Harbor East, Chicago later this year, with a $100mn investment.
Work on Blast Furnace No. 7 will begin on Sep 1, according to Lourenco Goncalves, president, and CEO, Cleveland-Cliffs in media reports on Aug 16. The modification is estimated to take 45 days, and the furnace will consume more hot briquetted iron, and emit less CO2, Goncalves added. This way and with the use of natural gas, Cleveland-Cliffs seeks to reduce the carbon footprint of this facility, which can produce 33pc more steel per day than the company’s other two blast furnaces at Cleveland Works.
Cleveland-Cliffs’ blast furnace No. 7 in Indiana Harbor is considered the largest in the world, with a capacity to forge up to 11,500mt of iron per day, and with this revamping the company seeks that it can work with hot-briquetted iron and iron ore as raw materials.