Donetskstal halts BF due to price fall

Donetskstal (DMZ) stops the second of its two blast furnaces because of price fall at steel markets and price growth at raw materials market.
Today the furnace is in the stopping stage reported recently by the deputy head of press department Ms. Julia Revyakina. According to her words, the furnace is stopped for a period around eight month that is till the beginning of 2011.
She said that the furnace is stopped till the stabilization of situation because today it is unprofitable to produce pig iron: a ton of pig iron costs $400 on the market while coke costs $410 per ton, which is completely illogical. That is why the mill will work some time without blast furnace production.
She also explained that the company keeps steel products production. To produce long steel products, a billet will be purchased. Moreover, there is an open-hearth production at the mill.
As it has been reported before, since June 1st 2010 DMZ stopped one blast furnace because of falling off in the market. Press department reported that time that there was devised and implemented in September 2008 a no-expenses technology for smooth stop of blast furnaces at the mill which allowed to put them fast in operation again in case the market of iron and steel stabilized and to reach the technological parameters of operations that had been before the stop. (Rusmet)
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