Steelmakers to move production to west Japan

Steelmakers to move production to west Japan to avoid power shortage. The head of an industry body for steelmakers said Tuesday the group will encourage shifting production to areas such as western Japan to cope with electricity shortages anticipated this summer in eastern and northeastern Japan in the aftermath of the March 11 disaster. "We want to promote moving production outside areas serviced by Tokyo Electric Power Co. and Tohoku Electric Power Co.," said Eiji Hayashida, chairman of the Japan Iron and Steel Federation. "(Steel plants in) western Japan can handle production from eastern Japan because they are not operating at full capacity." Hayashida told a press conference that the federation will draw up a plan by the end of this month for the steel industry to conserve power use, including boosting production at nighttime when electricity demand is low as an option. He said such a measure is necessary in view of a fall in Japan's manufacturing activities, such as vehicle production, since last month's earthquake and tsunami devastated vast areas in northeastern and eastern Japan and disabled the nuclear power plant in Fukushima Prefecture which serves the Kanto region centering on Tokyo. The federation chief also said steel plants intend to cooperate with power utilities such as Tokyo Electric in providing electricity by making full use of power generation facilities at the plants of major manufacturers which are equipped with large-scale in-house generators powered by gas created in the production process.