ArcelorMittal has idled blast furnace 3 at its Bremen site, which was only restarted in January after extended repairs, the company said.
The unit was idled in response to the coronavirus' impact on demand. Short-time working has been adopted at the company's Bremen, Bottrop and Eisenhuttenstadt sites.
Bremen has a capacity of around 3.6mn t/yr from two blast furnaces, as well as hot and cold-rolling and galvanising facilities.
ArcelorMittal has idled blast furnace 2 at its Taranto plant, as well as a blast furnace in Spain, and one at Dunkirk and one at Fos-sur-Mer in France. The company declared force majeure on coking coal shipments because coronavirus-related disruption has forced it to idle furnaces.
By Colin Richardson
