Overview
- The company told roughly 2,400 employees the restart would occur on December 23 after an October 8 blaze damaged conveyor structures and an electrical station without injuries.
- Blast furnace No. 2 was brought back online in mid-December, and the first slab was produced at 3:24 a.m. on December 22 for a Greek customer as rolling operations resumed.
- Deliveries to Mediterranean clients are restarting, with production moving from slabs to rolled coils.
- Blast furnace No. 1 remains out of service for renovation and is slated for a 2026 relaunch to take over from No. 2.
- Leaders are considering a €750 million electric‑arc furnace to decarbonize the site, contingent on the EU steel plan, while unions report heavy losses running to several hundred million euros.