Japan's blast furnace plants have been deeply affected by US auto tariffs, and their production capacity has been reduced again and again to the limit. Recently, there have been reports of trading companies inviting sales for steel billets in the Taiwan market. However, there is no sign of a deal yet.

The automotive industry is one of the main businesses of Japanese steel mills. Recently, Trump imposed a 25% tariff on automobile imports, which had a significant impact on Japanese steel mills. They had to adjust their production, and there were even reports that Japanese mills were closing blast furnaces.

However, even after the blast furnaces were shut down, the products were still unsalable. Recently, Japan has been selling hot-rolled steel to Taiwan and Southeast Asia at low prices, and has even been forced to sell semi-finished steel.