Nippon Steel, Japan’s largest integrated steelmaker, has decided to restart a blast furnace at its Nagoya Works in central Japan by the end of August, on the expected improvement in steel demand, the company announced on August 17.
The Nagoya No.3 BF had been under relining since late January and it was initially slated for reignition from early June, but it was then postponed because of stagnated steel demand from Japan’s auto sector and some other domestic manufacturers, as reported.
A Nippon Steel official explained that steel demand from some of Japan’s manufacturers including auto sector is still dull, but it is expected to pick up during the second half of the current fiscal year (September-March 2023) with the improvement in component deliveries. And demand from Japan’s other sectors such as construction, shipbuilders and machinery are expected to stay firm.
“We’ve been adjusting our output due to the delay in Nagoya BF’s reignition, but it can be restarted for expected demand recovery,” she explained.
Nippon Steel hosts a total of 11 blast furnaces across Japan. The company does not disclose each of its BF capacity, but the company’s latest data showed that it produced 38.68 million tonnes of crude steel in total during 2021 fiscal year (April 2021-March 2022, on a non-consolidated basis), 17.2% higher on year. And among the total, Nagoya Works produced some 5.66 million tonnes, 1.6% higher on year.
Nagoya Works hosts two BFs – No.1 with an inner volume of 5,443 cu m, and the relined No.3 of 4,425 cu m from the original 4,300 cu m.
A flat steel trader in Tokyo said that Nagoya Works is the key production base for auto sheets, as it’s located at Toyota Motor’s home field.
“It seems that Toyota is still adjusting its production plan lower, but it plans to lift output from October, while other automakers have been lifting their output slowly. So it might have prompted Nippon Steel to restart the furnace,” he said.
“But flat stocks in Japan remain at high levels, so actual flat output may not increase largely after the BF is restarted,” he predicted.
Written by Yoko Manabe, yoko.manabe@mysteel.com
This article has been published in accordance with an article exchange agreement between Mysteel Global and SteelMint.
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