JOHANNESBURG Nov 1 (Reuters) – ArcelorMittal South Africa
, a unit of the world’s top steelmaker, said
it had shut indefinitely three electric arc furnaces at its
Vanderbijlpark plant in South Africa, reducing annual output by
around 1 million tonnes.
The steelmaker, Africa’s biggest, was given until Oct. 16 to
deal with emissions from the furnaces and decided it was cheaper
to shut the units rather than complete a project on a
dust-extraction system that would capture the emissions.
Current weak demand for steel also justified the decision to
shut the units, Chief Executive Nonkululeko Nyembezi-Heita said
at the company’s results presentation.
“If that proves to be insufficient we would be looking for
further capacity shuts,” she said.
She added that the whole ArcelorMittal group was undergoing
a similar review and any decision to shut additional capacity
would be announced in the new year.
(Reporting by Sherilee Lakmidas; writing by Agnieszka Flak;
editing by David Dolan)
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