Integrated steelmaker US Steel is moving up an outage at its Mon Valley Works mill to September.
The three-week outage at Mon Valley's 1.4mn short tons/yr No. 3 blast furnace was originally planned for October.
US Steel made the change to be ready for demand recovery in the steel market as flat-rolled prices bottom, chief financial officer Christine Breves said.
The Argus US hot-rolled coil (HRC) Midwest ex-works assessment has fallen by 44pc since mid-April to $846/st. Some market participants have reported purchasing multi-thousand short ton orders in the last two weeks, with a handful calling the bottom in the market.
