US integrated steelmaker Cleveland-Cliffs is heard to be planning to take a blast furnace down indefinitely.
The steelmaker is already slated to take a two-week maintenance outage at its 1.51mn short tons (st)/yr No. 6 blast furnace in Cleveland, Ohio, as early as 1 October, one of many outages slated for next month.
The maintenance outage would take approximately 57,900 short tons (st) of raw steel production out of the market. Currently, there are approximately 1.16mn st of reported flat steel mill maintenance outages in the US from September through November.
Now, multiple market sources have been told Cliffs will keep the No 6 furnace down indefinitely after the maintenance outage until market conditions improve.
Cliffs did not respond to requests for comment.
The indefinite outage would be the first since competitor US Steel idled its remaining 1.4mn st/yr blast furnace at its Granite City, Illinois, mill in November. That mill has two furnaces which are now both shuttered indefinitely.
The steel market has been oversupplied throughout much of 2024, with prices falling for most of the year.
Market sources were mixed this morning on how the idling could impact steel pricing, which has been inching up for weeks. The Argus US Midwest hot-rolled coil (HRC) assessment has risen by $50/st since 30 July to $700/st ex-works on 10 September. During that period, the spot market has been relatively quiet as buyers have stuck to discounted contract volumes that have been $50/st or more cheaper than mill spot prices.
The futures market responded positively to the news, with futures prices for October up by $28/st to $750/st on over 330 trades, while November futures jumped $39/st to $780/st on more than 150 trades.
US flat steel mill outages | st | ||
Company | Mill location | Estimated duration | Estimated production impact |
September | |||
Cleveland-Cliffs | Coatesville | 5 days | 10,959 |
Cleveland-Cliffs | Riverdale | 21 days | 40,273 |
Evraz | Regina | 14 days | 46,027 |
Nucor | Crawfordsville | 14 days | 95,890 |
Nucor | Decatur | 7 days | 46,027 |
Nucor | Gallatin | 7 days | 53,698 |
SSAB | Iowa | 21-28 days | 76,118 |
Stelco | Hamilton | 3 days | 21,370 |
October | |||
Cleveland-Cliffs | Cleveland | 14 days | 57,900 |
AM/NS | Calvert | 14 days | 224,100 |
Big River Steel | Osceola | 10 days | 90,411 |
JSW | Mingo Junction | 7 days | 31,701 |
Nucor | Berkeley | 7 days | 65,953 |
Nucor | Hickman | 4 days | 28,997 |
SDI | Butler | 4 days | 35,068 |
SDI | Sinton | 4 days | 32,877 |
USS | Mon Valley | 19 days | 150,959 |
November | |||
NSBS | Delta | 2-3 days | 17,808 |
SDI | Columbus | 4 days | 35,068 |
Total | 1,161,204 | ||
Outages are based on market feedback and confirmation where possible.Tonnage counts are calculated as (nameplate capacity/365)length of the outage.The total outage tonnage count is based on the minimum number of days at mills with multiple lengths listed. |