United States Steel announced Friday that it was immediately idling blast furnace No. 4 at its Indiana Gary Works facility.
The outage was initially planned for April and would have lasted 48 days. However, the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as collapsing oil prices, impelled the company to act ahead of schedule.
Gary Works’ blast furnace No. 4 will be idled until market conditions improve, the company said.
USS has also announced that, effective immediately, it is temporarily idling blast furnace A at its Granite City Works in Illinois.
USS will also finish the unspecified stoppage of its iron and steelmaking facilities at Great Lakes Works.