Industrial Metallurgical Holding (IMH) will start maintenance of a blast furnace (BF) at its Tulachermet facility early to reduce rebar supply in March from Tula Steel due to a weak market, the company told Fastmarkets on February 25.
Tulachermet, which supplies Tula Steel with pig iron, will stop BF No3 for around a month from late March after previously planning to begin in April. BF No3 has capacity for 1.495 million tonnes per year of pig iron. Only BF No2, which has a capacity of 643,000 tpy, will be in operation at the asset during maintenance."Demand [for rebar] in the Central Federal District [the key steel consuming region in Russia and where Tula Steel is located] remains weak for the moment, and that is...