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Nippon Steel Adjusts Blast Furnace Output to Match Steel Demand
02/02/2009 - Nippon Steel will bank a blast furnace at Kimitsu Works and hot bank coke ovens at a number of facilities in response to sharply decreased demand for steel products.
Nippon Steel Corp. announced plans to reduce overall steel output to the bare minimum in response to the sharp and substantial decrease in demand for steel products.
Nippon Steel said it would decrease blast furnace production to an unprecedented low level in order to balance production volume with the current demand conditions. The company said it plans to move up the scheduled blow off to renovate the Oita Works’ 4884-cubic-meter No. 1 Blast Furnace by one month to begin February 1 instead of March 7, 2009.
Nippon Steel also plans to bank the Kimitsu Works’ 3273-cubic-meter No. 2 Blast Furnace as soon as preparations can be completed, with a target date of February or early March 2009. When a blast furnace is banked, production is stopped temporarily by stopping the air blast flow; a banked blast furnace can be restarted at a later date.
In addition, the company has vastly reduced the operating rates of its coke ovens to correlate with the reduced production by its blast furnaces. The company will conduct hot banking of certain coke ovens at the Kimitsu, Nagoya, Yawata, and Oita Works. By hot banking the coke ovens — maintaining the oven temperature of the shut-down coke ovens — the company can restart coke oven operations at a later date.
