Posted on 08 Jun 2020
Nippon Steel Corporation tells Kallanish it plans to upgrade the No.3 Blast Furnace of its Nagoya Works during the first half of 2022. Nagoya Works is one of Nippon Steel's key production bases for automotive steel sheets.
Nippon Steel plans JPY 49 billion ($455 million) of investment for the project. This 4,425 cubic-metre blast furnace will be upgraded with advanced IT and other leading-edge technologies from Japan and abroad, in order to realize stable production and higher productivity.
The furnace will be idled for about 3-4 months during April-September 2022, a company spokeswoman said. The expenditure will be included in the company's JPY 1.5 trillion spending of the medium-term management plan (fiscal 2018 to fiscal 2020).
Under the influence of Covid-19, Nippon Steel has announced the closure of 5 of its 15 blast furnaces, which reduced production capacity by around 30% (see Kallanish passim). However, the company clarified that the purpose of this blast furnace upgrade is to enhance the competitiveness of the equipment rather than reduce production.
