ThyssenKrupp Steel (TKS) Europe’s EUR37m refractory relining of blast furnace 9 (BF9) at its Duisburg-Hamborn plant in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, is due for completion at the end of May 2012.
The 1.7m tpa hot metal furnace was shut down on 8 January for a period of 180 days to allow the refractory lining and parts of the cooling system to be replaced to improve the plant’s competitiveness and sustainability.
The work was originally planned for 2014, but with demand for flat steel products weaker at present for inventory cycle reasons, and likely to impact production until spring, TKS brought forward the project.
Any short-term supply shortages can be covered from stock TKS assured in a company statement.
During the shutdown of BF9, the other three blast furnaces - furnaces 1 and 2 in Schwelgern which have more than double the capacity, as well as furnace...