Reuters reported that Nippon Steel Corporation would restart operations at a blast furnace in Oita from August 2nd 2009 as the worst of an industry slump appears over.

The Oita plant has been shut since February 2009 after a plunge in demand amid the global economic crisis forced the company to cut output by 40% to 45%in the January to March 2009 quarter from a year earlier.

Nippon Steel said that it plans to increase crude steel output in July to September 2009 quarter by 30% QoQ as carmakers and other manufacturers have started to replenish stocks. But demand has yet to fully recover as improvements in the global economy remain fragile.

A Nippon Steel spokesman said that "The tempo of recovery is still slow, but we decided to restart the operations from the viewpoint of improving production efficiency."

Meanwhile, Nippon Steel is expected to tumble into a huge loss in April to June 2009 quarter hurt by lower output and a large one off loss related to the valuation of stocks of raw materials. It will announce first quarter results on July 29th 2009.

(Sourced from www.reuters.com)