The Times of Munster reported that a blast furnace at a northwestern Indiana steel mill is back at normal production levels following repairs to key air pollution control equipment.

As per report, the air scrubbing equipment failed on January 7th 2012 on one blast furnace at US Steel Corporation's Gary complex, slowing normal pig iron production until January 11th 2012.

The equipment scrubs pollutants such as particles laden with heavy metals from gases in the blast furnace.

US Steel alerted the Indiana Department of Environmental Management of the failure. IDEM regional deputy director Bob Simmons says the incident didn't trigger a permit violation, but production was shut down for safety reasons because of high carbon monoxide concentrations.

US Steel spokeswoman Ms Courtney Boone says the company only provides operations updates during its quarterly conference calls with analysts.

(Sourced from www.indystar.com)