Plant fire costs Nippon Steel up to $350m www.asia.nikkei.com
TOKYO -- Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal's profits will likely be cut by some 30 billion yen to 40 billion yen ($265 million to $353 million) due to a fire at its plate mill in early January, The Nikkei learned Thursday.
The mill, in Oita Prefecture, southwestern Japan, is a key production site of the Japanese steelmaker. The damage is expected to affect the company's earnings for the two fiscal years through March 2018.
In addition to the costs to restore the damaged mill, the maker will face lower sales of steel plate. Compared to the manufacturer's other factory locations, the Oita plant has a larger capacity and better facilities for steel-plate making. Shifting production to other locations will raise production costs.
The fire began in the early morning on Jan. 5 and lasted 36 hours before being extinguished. Nippon Steel expects to resume operations of the plate mill sometime around September.
Published Date:2017-02-02