Nippon Steel Corporation is considering to close both blast furnaces at Kure works within few years and may shut down the entire steelworks in face of rising output in China, a Japanese business daily reported. The company is set to cut about 10% of its crude steel production capacity in the coming years.
The parent company in Dec’19 announced plans to temporarily stop operations at this furnace in mid-Feb’20 and concentrate production at the other furnace at the Kure Works while the former would be kept ready to go back online when necessary.
The two furnaces said to be subject to review, both situated at the steelworks in the city of Kure operated by Nippon Steel Nisshin Co.’s Kure Works, produced a combined 2.73 MnT of crude steel in CY18, which ended in March last year. Nippon Steel is set to absorb the unit on April 1.
However, the company has not announced any formal decisions related to it.
Nippon Steel halted one of the three blast furnaces at its Kimitsu Works in the city of Kimitsu, Chiba Prefecture, in Mar’16 and is set to stop one Kokura area blast furnace of its Yawata Works in Kitakyushu, Fukuoka Prefecture, in Mar’21.
Once operations at the two Kure furnaces and the Kokura area furnace are stopped, crude steel production by the Nippon Steel group’s domestic blast furnaces will fall about 10%. The Kokura furnace produced 1.18 MnT of crude steel in CY18.
~ Sourced
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