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There is no offical word yet, but all signs indicate that ArcelorMittal will restart the Cockerill Sambre Seraing blast furnace (HF 6) later this year. Arcelor blew out the furnace in 2005 as part of a mid-term plan to shut down the entire hot metal production in the Liège basin and to reduce hot metal capacities across Europe. The merger with Mittal meant a revision of these plans. For now, the idea is to compensate maintenance-related production losses of other European ArcelorMittal sites with Seraing iron, but likely, the entire Liège shutdown plan might be called into question. Last night, the Seraing blast furnace was in full illumination again, a sight not seen for long months. I reported on its closure in these blog postings:

2005-04-18 The last tapping
2005-04-26 Au revoir, Esperance

More photos:

2005-07-21 Strictement
2005-08-21 Backyard Furnace
2005-11-11 Une ville à vivre