A blast furnace at Usiminas' Ipatinga unit in Brazil's southeastern Minas Gerais state caught on fire during maintenance work on Tuesday, only a month after being restarted, but there were no expectations of any effect on deliveries, the steelmaker said on Wednesday September 23.
There were complications during routine maintenance at the No1 blast furnace, which resumed operations on August 26 following four months of downtime. There was a loud noise and flames from the top of the unit, Usiminas said."Our technical team quickly took control of the situation," the company added. "One...