Nippon Steel delays planned furnace restart due to weak demand

Japan-based Nippon Steel Corp. will delay the planned restart of a blast furnace at its Nagoya Works operation due to weak demand driven by supply chain issues and China's COVID-19 lockdowns, Bloomberg News reported June 3, citing a company statement.

Nippon Steel targeted a restart by the end of June after spending ¥49 billion on renovation work. The blast furnace will now remain idle indefinitely, according to Bloomberg.

The Nagoya Works manufactures steel sheets for automobiles and is located near Toyota Motor Corp.'s production sites. The idled blast furnace represents 8.3% of the company's nationwide capacity, the report said.

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