Bloomberg reported that Kobe Steel Limited plans to increase usage of its capacity by about 10 percentage points as customers including carmakers reduce inventories.

Mr Hiroyuki Yabuki a spokesman for Kobe Steel said that it will probably begin increasing utilization rates to about 65% before restoring the rate to 70% from September.

It may be noted that Kobe and other mills in Japan are counting on demand to recover as Japanese automakers decelerate output cuts by shedding excess inventories. Japan's steel orders fell at a slower pace of 35% in April, a month after recording the largest percentage drop because of the global recession

(Sourced from www.bloomberg.net)