Japan's April crude steel output falls 4.4 per cent

TOKYO, May 23 (Reuters): Japan's crude steel output fell 4.4 per cent in April from a year earlier, the Japan Iron and Steel Federation said on Monday, as producers responded to slow demand from the auto sector due to a prolonged supply-chain crunch and China's Covid-19 restrictions.

Output in Japan, the world's third-largest steel producer, came in at 7.47 million tonnes for April, a fourth consecutive monthly decline and down 6.1 per cent from March. The figure was not seasonally adjusted.

"The supply-chain issue continued to slow automobile production, weighing on steel demand," said a researcher at the federation, adding that output was also affected by the shutdown of a blast furnace for repair.

Nippon Steel Corp, Japan's biggest steelmaker, shut down one of its blast furnaces in Nagoya for relining in late January, expecting operations to resume in June.

Earlier this month, Toyota Motor, the world's top automaker by sales, cut its global production target for May by around 50,000 vehicles to about 700,000, as it planned to suspend some operations for up to six days due to China's lockdowns.