Japanese JFE Holdings to revise forecast and cut down jobs

Japanese JFE Holdings to revise forecast and cut down jobs

Japan's biggest steelmaker JFE Holdings, officially established through the merger of NKK Corp. and Kawasaki Steel Corp. announced its plans to cut down both production and its workforce. The decisions include plans to close 2 blast furnaces and 12 production lines by March 2004, aiming to bring down the domestic production capacity around by 15%. The facilities destined for a close down are blast furnace no.1 at Kurashiki, blast furnace no.5 at Chiba, two cold rolled lines at Keihin, five coated lines at Chiba and Fukuyama, two lines for longs at Kurashiki and Fukuyama, and four lines currently producing welded pipes at Chita, Keihin and Anegasaki. Such action will bring the company's total capacity down by about 3 million tons, to an annual of approximately 21.5 million tons. The company announced today that it will revise the group's net profit forecast for the year to March, after stock market closes. The company is also preparing a medium term business plan. It expects a net profit of Yen 16 billion in the year that ends on March 31, 2003, taken down from the previous estimation of Yen 33 billion, due to cost restructuring and securities valuation loss. JFE also stated that it plans a job cut of 7'200, taking the workforce down to 45'000 by March 2006. This is involved in the part of the plans. These measures are taken for the purpose of taking a more competitive stance against the market conditions and boost the group profit through to March 2006.