According to data from the Japan Iron and Steel Federation (JISF), Japanese crude steel production dropped by 9.8% year on year to 8.1 million tons roughly this January. This decrease hit a new low record during recent 10 years since July 2009. It was said that the primary reason for the drop was due to production facilities under maintenance rather than weaker steel demand among market.

Three blast furnaces of JEF Steel, one of the leading steel producers in Japan, malfunctioned at its both mills located in West and East Japan, and it was calculated a loss of 1.4 million tons of steel output from October to this February.

The administrator of JISF told that the converters had facility issues that reduced production ability, but administrator didn’t mention about electric furnaces.