German steelmaker ThyssenKrupp Steel Europe has announced that blast furnace No. 9 at its Duisburg-Hamborn facility has been put back into operation again. The blast furnace was taken out of service in the spring of 2012 for relining and replacement of parts of the cooling system. The flat steel producer has invested around €38 million in the upgrade, designed to improve the competitiveness and viability of the site.
According to ThyssenKrupp's statement, pig iron production at blast furnace No. 9 has been restarted in preparation for the planned relining of blast furnace No. 2 in Duisburg-Schwelgern next year. How long ThyssenKrupp Steel Europe's four blast furnaces in Duisburg are operated at technically and economically optimum levels will depend on how the market develops in the future.
ThyssenKrupp Steel Europe has four blast furnaces in total. Two of them are in Duisburg-Hamborn - the now restarted facility and the newly built blast furnace No. 8 that went into operation in December 2007. These two units together produce around 3.7 million mt of pig iron per year. The two blast furnaces No. 1 and No. 2 in Duisburg-Schwelgern together have an output of roughly 7.7 million mt per year.