Japan’s largest steelmaker Nippon Steel Corp plans to cut its steel shipments in the fiscal second half by 1 million tonnes from the earlier envisioned level, the firm said.
 
 Its total shipments in fiscal 2008 therefore will come to about 32 million tonnes.
 
 Mr Kiichiro Masuda executive VP of Nippon at a press conference said that the global economy is expected to slow further and that steel demand is seen to be negatively affected as a result.

Japan’s Nippon Steel Corp announced that its second quarter net income dropped by 12% YoY to JPY 78.92 billion yen hurt by higher materials costs.
 
 Its sales improved by 17% to JPY 1.40 trillion yen.
 
 For the first six months through September, the company’s net profit was down by 8.4% to JPY 161.68 billion. Operating profit declined by 6.1% to JPY 248.41 billion and sales were down by 12.3% YoY to JPY 2.6 trillion in the first half of the business year starting in April.

Ferrous scrap market price drops additionally in Tokyo and Osaka under slower demand at home and abroad. Tokyo Steel Manufacturing reduced the steel selling price sharply to encourage the new order and higher steel demand could impact on scrap market.

However, scrap dealers anticipate scrap price could decrease to less than JPY 15,000 per tonne for H2 at steel makers’ purchase price when the offshore scrap market keeps decreasing

Nippon Steel Corp, the world’s second-biggest steelmaker, is considering output cuts from November to cope with a slowdown in exports and domestic demand, a source with direct knowledge of the matter said.

The company, which is operating at full capacity at present, may start cutting output by a few percentage points and will continue making adjustments in accordance with developments in the market, the source said.