S&P Platts reported that ArcelorMittal is set to restart one of the two temporarily idled blast furnaces at its Dunkerque site in northern France in August. A spokesman said “ArcelorMittal plans to restart blast furnace No 3, which has a capacity of 3 million tonne peryear of crude steel, at some point in August, but the precise date has not been decided.”

Dunkerque has three blast furnaces with combined annual capacity of 7 million tonnes, but only one is operational at the moment. The two largest blast furnaces, which have matching annual capacities, were temporarily shuttered in March and April due to the slump in demand caused by the coronavirus pandemic. ArcelorMittal idled No 1 blast furnace at Fos-sur-Mer on March 23 due to the pandemic. The site's No. 2 blast furnace was supposed to be idled in June, but this was postponed by a month.