JFE Steel Corp. said Thursday it will temporarily shut down one of its blast furnaces in Kurashiki, Okayama Prefecture, from mid-January to combat a sharp slowdown in steel demand from automakers.
JFE will become the first major Japanese steelmaker to take the rare move of closing down a blast furnace as a result of the fallout from the worldwide financial crisis. Other steelmakers have tried to control production levels through slowing down their operations.
The company said it decided to close one of the three Kurashiki blast furnaces that has been run by West Japan Works since 1990 in view of production efficiency and cost factors, bringing forward the timing of suspending the aging facility for refurbishment.
JFE has already decided to further reduce crude steel production by 1.5 million tons in the October-March period from the first half of fiscal 2008 in a reduction that will be three times bigger than its initial plan to cut output by 500,000 tons.