US Steel has confirmed to Davis Index that it will restart the Gary Works blast furnace #6 on July 6, 2020.
US Steel has confirmed to Davis Index that it will restart the Gary Works blast furnace #6 on July 6, 2020.
The restart is attributed to growth in customer demand. US Steel is committing to adjust to market conditions and customer needs including the return of banked blast furnaces or adjusting operations to accommodate changing order volumes.
US Steel had idled its 1.4mn st (1.2mn mt) blast furnace for nearly two months following COVID-19-induced demand slump. The restart coincides with restarts by AK Steel in Detroit, NLMK in Indiana, and JSW in Ohio, and US Steel’s own recent Mon Valley site in Pittsburgh.
The restarts and consumer activity, post the COVID-19 shutdowns are building towards stronger Q3 and Q4 production levels and corresponding expectations of higher supply chain sales. The restarts are also expected to support ferrous scrap volumes during the early July scrap buying week.
Some market participants expressed concerns that a balance in restarts is necessary to maintain the prices of HRC and rebar and align them with demand. They warned of excess supply-side inventories that may depress finishes steel prices. Present forecasts by IHS Markit have Q2 finished steel prices on both flat and longs steel products at the bottom of the pricing curve in 2020 with increases in Q3 and stronger prices in Q4 as steel demand recuperates into 2021.