Japanese steelmaker Nippon Steel is planning to shut down another blast furnace at its Kure Works, according to a report by Nikkei, reducing domestic steel production capacity by 10 percent. The steelmaker may even consider shutting down the entire plant, along with its plate production lines, SteelOrbis understands. Nippon Steel is also reportedly planning to halt another blast furnace at its Kitakyushu plant at the end of March 2021.
A major Japanese trader has told SteelOrbis that the blast furnace stoppage was planned some time ago at the Kure Works, which belonged to Nisshin Steel, now a part of Nippon Steel, adding that therefore it is not expected to impact Nippon Steel’s sales activities.
As SteelOrbis previously reported, Nippon Steel Nisshin decided to temporarily stop its blast furnace No. 2 at its Kure Works around mid-February 2020 and to focus on production at its No. 1 furnace.
In the first half of the financial year 2019-20, Nippon Steel’s crude steel output stood at 24.26 million mt, up 2.6 percent, while Japan’s crude steel output in 2019 was 99.28 million mt, down 4.8 percent, both year on year.