Nippon Steel Restarts No.1 Blast Furnace in Oita

Nippon Steel announced on Tuesday the firm restarts the operation of no.1 blast furnace in Oita iron works on 2 August. The firm took into account the production and cost efficiency though steel demand is recovering slowly. No.2 blast furnace of Kimitsu iron works continues suspention. Nippon Steel’s crude steel output decreased by 45% to 4.67 million tonnes for January-March from a year earlier. The output seems to have decreased by 43% to 4.7 million tonnes for April-June. The firm plans to increase the output to 6.5 million tonnes for July-September.Nippon Steel stopped the operation of no.1 blast furnace in Oita works on 1 February and no.2 blast furnace in Kimitsu works on 28 February. The firm also suspended the operation of some coke ovens in Kimitsu, Nagoya, Yawata and Oita iron works.The demand is weak from building or equipment investment while likely to hit the bottom for automobile or electric appliance by progress of these industries’ inventory adjustment. The demand is recovering by governmental economic policies and inventory adjustment in Asia while lack of stability in Europe and USA. Steel market price is rising in Asia.Nippon Steel concidered production and cost efficiency lowers if the firm continues suspention of 2 blast furnaces in Oita and Kimitsu despite of increasing demand. Especially, Oita works may be suffered from inbalance of gas and semi-finished steel supply because the works operates only one blast furnace at present.