Reuters reported that Germany's largest steelmaker ThyssenKrupp is considering restarting in November a blast furnace it had idled in March at the height of a worldwide slump in steel demand.

A spokesman said that "We are discussing right now on whether to restart BF Number 9 in mid November. This decision would probably be taken by the end of October or even already mid October and would depend on market conditions.”

BF No 9, one of the company's four furnaces in Germany, per day produces 5,000 tonnes of hot metal. It was the only furnace the company had shut and the other three were running at very low capacity before demand started to stabilize recently.

All four furnaces, with total annual capacity of 16 million tonnes make it the single largest steel plant in Europe.

Mr Hermann Reith Analyst of BHF-Bank said ThyssenKrupp would have to re activate furnace No. 9 because a hot rolling mill at its new carbon steel plant in Alabama, United States, would start production in the second quarter of next year. He said "That is the other reason for the re-start. The slabs for the hot rolling mill will come from Germany.”

(Sourced from Reuters)