ArcelorMittal on Friday confirmed that it plans to permanently shut two blast furnaces at its Liege, Belgium, steelworks in response to structural over capacity in Northern Europe and expectations that demand will take longer than expected to recover.

Mr Joao Felix da Silva CEO of ArcelorMittal Liege said “Despite several improvement plans enacted in Liege to reduce the difference in the cost of hot rolled coil between Liege and other sites in the region, the liquid phase in Liege is still not competitive enough under foreseeable market conditions.”

ArcelorMittal said it has informed the works council about the planned closure and would seek to minimize job losses as a result of the shutdown. ArcelorMittal employs 3,000 people at Liege, 600 of which are directly employed at the blast furnaces. The blast furnaces have an operational capacity of 3.1 million tonnes of liquid steel a year.

ArcelorMittal had idled one blast furnace during the 2008 downturn and idled the second one in August of this year due to weak demand.

(Sourced from Market Watch)