On February 25, Japanese steel giants Nippon Steel Corp. and JFE Holdings Inc. announced their agreement to mutually supply semi-finished products such as steel slabs in cases when there are sudden demand changes in the steel market.
As reported by official Chinese news agency Xinhua, this is the first instance of such cooperation between these archrivals in the global and domestic steel industry.
Last month, in a precursor to the agreement, Nippon Steel supplied slabs to JFE to help it cope with demand in the aftermath of a fire at one of its factories in Chiba Prefecture. In turn, JFE will supply semi-finished steel to Nippon Steel in March.
Nippon Steel is the second and JFE is the sixth largest steelmaker in the world.