chinas crude steel output rose 72 in january from a year earlier despite an extended holiday for lunar new year celebrations and curbs to rein in the virus tokyo chinese steelmakers should cut production to reflect weakening demand from manufacturers amid a coronavirus outbreak as steel inventories climb in the worlds biggest steel producer the head of japans steel industry said on thursday chinas crude steel output rose 72 in january from a year earlier despite an extended holiday for lunar new year celebrations and curbs to rein in the virus and stockpiles of rebar stainless steel and other products have built up dramatically in china after the epidemic stalled many construction projects and kept factories shut for weeks advt we are aware that the steel stockpile in china is rapidly rising said yoshihisa kitano the chairman of the japan iron and steel federation we want to warn that chinese steelmills should adjust their output to reflect declining manufacturing activities he told a news conference kitano who is also president of jfe steel a unit of jfe holdings said his company has cut its shipments of automotive steel as japanese automakers slowed output in china as well as in japan due to lack of auto parts made in china but japanese steelmakers are seeing no impacts yet on their exports to southeast asia he added read alsoindra revises downwards outlook on steel sector to negativechinese steel output seen falling due to virus outbreak reuters published on feb 28 2020 at 0813 am ist telegram facebook copy link be the first one to comment comment now comments comment now read comment 1 all comments post post find this comment offensive choose your reason below and click on the submit button this will alert our moderators to take actions reasons for reporting foul language defamatory inciting hatred against a certain community out of context spam others report join the community of 2m industry professionals subscribe to our newsletter to get latest insights analysis download etauto app get realtime updates save your favourite articles scan to download app japan steel industry chinese steel industry jfe holdings coronavirus covid19 homenewsindustryjapans steel industry head urges chinese manufacturers to cut output