Nippon Steel expects production losses due to plant shutdowns

Nippon Steel, Japan's largest steel mill, is forecasting a loss of about 400,000 tonnes of steel in fiscal 2019 as a result of shutdowns this year at its plants at its Kimitsu plant in Tokyo and at Nippon Steel Nisshin Kure plant in Hiroshima, the company confirmed on Thursday. ... ,

Fiscal 2019 of the company runs from April 2019 to March 2020.

Production at the 150,000 tpa steel plant in Kimitsu was suspended after a stack collapsed at its gas processing plant due to Typhoon Faxai that hit eastern Japan on 9 September, S & P Global Platts.

A spokesman for Nippon Steel said the company expects renovations to be completed by the end of December and the plant could be restarted from January.

“We have set up alternative production facilities at other factories such as Muroran Works, Kashima Works, Yawata Works and Wakayama Works, and have asked other steel mills to support, but these supports cannot cover all the losses,” she said. She also said that in fiscal 2019, the total loss in finished steel production affected by the shutdown will reach around 340,000 tonnes.

Nippon Steel also predicts that losses from the shutdown of its Kure # 2 steel mill at its Nippon subsidiary Steel Nisshin will reach 100,000 tonnes in the same period.

S&P Global Platts previously reported that the Nisshin Kure No.2 steel mill was closed due to a fire on August 30. The company expected it to be difficult to restart before the end of the current fiscal year.

A spokesman for Nippon Steel said the total production loss at Nisshin is expected to reach 450,000 tonnes, but Nippon Steel will cover 280,000 tonnes at Nisshin and 70,000 tonnes can be utilized, so the total loss will be around 100,000 tonnes.

“Our other works were operating below full production, so they could use the available capacity to support Kimitsu and Kure,” said the spokeswoman.

Meanwhile, the company expected the business impact loss, which includes both volume and value losses, from the shutdown of Kimitsu steel production to reach 25 billion yen ($ 229.23 million), and for Nisshin's Kure - 15 billion yen.