AGI reported that following the AIA commission's provisions, ILVA's blast furnace 1 was shut down on Saturday at 5:50 AM.

The company said that the revamping procedures will take 18 months and the blast furnace will be restarted in the first half of 2014. ILVA also said that the coke oven batteries 5 and 6 were shut on Thursday.

The revamping process for this part of the plant will be completed by the end of 2013. The total investments for planned rebuild activities blast furnace 1 and batteries 5 and 6 amount to about EUR 270 million.