September 08, 2008

WCI Steel begins to restart its operations after fire disruption

It is reported that production at WCI Steel is slowly ramping up after damage to its blast furnace was repaired and crews started loading the blast furnace with coke, iron ore and limestone Sunday. WCI Steel blast furnace has been down since November 9 when a fire started in the hydraulic rooms on the main deck.

Mr Tim Roberts a spokesman of WCI Steel said that though repairs have been completed, the company will need some time to return to full production.

The furnace is expected to produce molten iron of satisfactory quality. The basic oxygen furnace, which turns the iron into steel and the caster, which produces steel slabs are expected to be restarted later this week. Those operations have been down since the fire.

Mr Roberts said that the company's rolling mill continued operating until this past Wednesday using slabs that had been in inventory. The rolling mill may be restarted on a limited basis next week, but he declined to comment on how much the fire has cost WCI or how much production has been lost.