TOKYO (AFP) — Japan's second-largest steelmaker said Thursday it will shut down one of its blast furnaces from next month as global demand for steel plummets with the economic downturn.
Japan's JFE Steel Corp. said it was cutting production by nearly 26 percent in the second half of this fiscal year.
It decided to close the blast furnace in the western city of Kurashiki in mid-January after "comprehensively studying orders, production efficiency and cost," a company statement said.
JFE Steel plans to cut crude steel output to 11.50 million tonnes in the second half of the year through March, down from 15.49 million tonnes in the first half, a company spokesman said.
The fall is steeper than the production cut of 1.5 million tonnes announced in November.
The blast furnace to be shut down is the company's oldest and has been in operation for 18 years.
"The company will close it for now and put it through renovations, but we have not decided yet when to open the furnace," the spokesman said.
The World Steel Association said last week that global steel production tumbled 19 percent in November from a year earlier, with North American output dropping steeply.
Steel demand -- and prices -- had been rising rapidly until the global economic crisis, led by soaring growth in China and other emerging economies.
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