An expected lengthy outage of one of two Severstal North America iron-making blast furnaces will reduce the Dearborn, Mich., steel mill's overall production volume by 35% this year. The parent firm, JSC Severstal of Russia, says the blast furnace outage output reduction could last for 18–24 months. The million ton/year "B" furnace has been shut since early January due to "a breach of the furnace's shell," the company says in a news release. It is the smaller of two blast furnaces at the 3.5 million ton/year sheet plant. Market insiders speculate that the shortage could force Severstal North America to defer shipments to smaller-volume customers to focus on major end users, including auto and appliance makers. The company says the larger "C" furnace is operating and production is expected to reach nearly two million tons of annual capacity late in the third quarter.