Nippon Steel shuts Kashima BF

There was no stay of execution for the shutdown of what was once the world's largest blast furnace, with Nippon Steel blowing down the No. 3 furnace at its Kashima works, north of Tokyo, just before 1am on Monday morning, as planned.

The permanent closure of the furnace in the East Japan Steel Works in Kashima city, Ibaraki prefecture, together with other facilities including a converter, two continuous casters, a sintering machine, coke ovens, a heavy plate mill and shape mill, is part of the huge corporate restructuring that Nippon Steel