ArcelorMittal needs one month to restore Kazakh output

ArcelorMittal Temirtau, a Kazakh unit of the world’s largest steelmaker, said on Monday it would take a month to restore output at its steel mill after an incident on Saturday prompted a partial suspension of operations.

ArcelorMittal Temirtau, Kazakhstan’s biggest steel mill, said at the weekend that several gas pipelines had been damaged after a fire broke out at the plant.

“I think that the recovery from the accident will take at least three weeks, then we will begin to raise the production,” ArcelorMittal quoted the plant’s executive director, Vadim Basin, as saying in a statement.

“The final recovery from the accident and the recovery efforts will take a month.”

At the same time, the company was sticking to its plans to produce 3.915 million tonnes of steel this year, Kazakh news website Tengrinews.kz reported Basin as saying at a briefing.

(Reporting by Olzhas Auyezov; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)