Nippon Steel is planning to cut 10pc of production capacity by closing two blast furnaces at its Kure plant, the world’s third biggest steel plant, located in Hiroshima, Japan.
Utilisation of these two blast furnaces suffered due to a fire at the plant in August. Capacity of the plant is 7pc of Nippon’s total production. Output at the Kure plant was 2.73mn mt for the 2019 fiscal.
Nippon Steel announced plans to halt operations at another furnace at the Kyushu plant next year.
The Kyushu furnace closure will reduce the group’s domestic production by 10pc.
Nippon steel has 15 blast furnaces in Japan and an annual steel production capacity of 54mn mt.
According to the World Steel Association global steel production was 1.87bn mt in 2019, up 3.4pc from 2018.