Steel Market Production Cuts – ArcelorMittal plans to curtail output at its 4.4 million tpy flat product works in Ghent, Belgium by 10-15% in the third quarter of 2012 due to the current economic situation.

Steel Market Production Cuts – Scheduled maintenance outages at major cold rolled mills in China this month will reduce output by a total of 140,000-150,000 tonnes of CRC.

Steel Market Production Cuts – Italian producer Lucchini group has announced it will be idling its Piombino, Italy blast furnace for four straight weeks in August – up from the scheduled one week – due to weak market conditions.

Steel Market Production Cuts – Japanese steelmaker Nippon Steel was forced to bank its  No. 2 blast furnace at its Kimitsu Works after a coke spill and fire on Tuesday – the company planned for the furnace to be restarted on Thursday.

Steel Market Production Increases – Indian steelmaker JSW plans to increase production capacity at its Vijayanagar works by 2 million tpy to 12 million tpy by March 0f 2013.

Steel Market Production Increases – Russian billet producer Frolovo Volga-Fest plans to restart its 270,000 tpy EAF billet plant in the Volgograd region next week – the plant has been closed since late April for maintenance.

Sources: Steel Business Briefing