Integrated steelmaker US Steel has idled another blast furnace at its Gary Works steel mill in Indiana as it deals with falling demand from closures related to Covid-19.

Blast furnace No 8 was idled last week due to declines in demand as North American auto plants remain closed. No 8 has a production capacity of 1.2mn short tons (st)/yr of flat-rolled products.

The blast furnace had been restarted in late-2019 to provide production to cover the planned maintenance outage of the 1.5mn st/yr No 4 blast furnace at Gary Works. No 4 was idled at the end of March due to declines in demand after automakers shut down their North American plants, cutting into steel demand.

US Steel also idled a blast furnace at its Granite City Works near St Louis, Missouri, and completed the planned closing of its Great Lakes Works in Michigan.

In the last month, more than 6.7mn st/yr of flat-rolled steel production has been taken offline due to coronavirus-related demand issues, with all closures done by integrated steelmakers.

Capacity utilization rates in the US fell below 70pc last week, according to data from the American Iron and Steel Institute.

LME three-month aluminum closed last week at $1,467/mt, down 13.04% compared to a month ago, according to MetalMiner IndX data.