Steel Mills
April 5, 2022
AHMSA Restarts Furnace Following Major Upgrades
Written by David Schollaert
Mexican flat-rolled steelmaker Altos Hornos de México (AHMSA) has restarted its No. 5 blast furnace following a planned two-week upgrade outage, a company spokesman said.
The 130 million pesos ($6.5 million) investment included upgrades to its continuous caster, coking plant ovens, service areas, and loading systems.
Maintenance to AHMSA’S No. 5 blast furnace – its largest – was aimed at increasing slab capabilities to meet strong domestic and international demand, the company said.
Despite an electrical fire last week that damaged to No. 5’s air blower, the project was not derailed, and the upgrade was completed on time.
AHMSA said the latest improvements didn’t include the company’s No. 6 furnace that’s been idled since 2020 because market conditions, according to SMU’s blast furnace status table.
The No. 5 furnace has capacity of 1.91 million tons per year and the No. 6 furnace annual capacity of 1.27 million tons, according to the Association for Iron and Steel Technology’s 2021 Directory of Iron and Steel Plants.
AHMSA makes hot-rolled coil, cold-rolled coil, plate, tinplate and structural shapes, per its website.
By David Schollaert, David@SteelMarketUpdate.com
