US Steel eyeing December restart for Gary No.4 blast furnace: sources

Pittsburgh — US Steel is said to be eyeing a December restart of the No. 4 blast furnace at its Gary Works in Indiana amid tightening availability in the US market, according to market sources.

The No. 4 furnace at Gary, one of the four total furnaces at the site, was temporarily idled in early 2020 for planned maintenance and has remained offline as the company adjusted its production earlier in the year in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. US Steel previously restarted operations at the No. 6 and No. 8 blast furnaces at Gary in July and August, respectively.

A spokeswoman for US Steel declined to comment Nov. 19 on the potential restart, stating the company does not comment on rumors or speculation.

Multiple buy-side sources reported hearing that the furnace would be restarted in the first week of December, however this could not be confirmed with the company.

During the company's third quarter conference call in late October, US Steel CFO Christie Breves said the company is looking to spend about $80 million on hot-strip mill capability upgrades at the Gary Works facility in conjunction with planned outages in 2021.

The No.4 furnace at Gary has a rated annual capacity of 1.36 million st/year, according to data from the Association for Iron and Steel Technology.