It could be some days before Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal resumes production at its Nagoya steel plant which was shut down following a fire on Wednesday.
The company, which supplies carmakers including Honda, Toyota and Suzuki, said it hoped to reopen the site as soon as possible but could put no definite timetable on it.
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A spokeswoman told Reuters: “We are checking all the facilities to ensure safety and soundness. We hope to resume operations as soon as possible, but we don’t know when we can do that.”
The fire started in the plant’s coal storage facility and conveyor belt, near the coke oven. Fifteen people were injured and the blaze was extinguished early on Thursday. It was the fifth accident at the plant this year, Reuters noted.
The cause of the fire has not been determined but the company said it was likely caused when coal reacted with oxygen during the process of charging it for the oven.
Main facilities, including blast furnaces, a rolling mill, and a heavy plates unit, halted operations while some processing facilities such as a pipe plant and a galvanising plant have continued to operate.
The Nagoya plant produced 6.74m tonnes of crude steel, about 15% of its total output, in the business year to 31 March, 2014. It has suffered power failures and smoke releases four times from January to July.
The plant has a two week stockpile of most of its products, including semi-finished steel, but some products may run out as early as five days after the fire accident, the company said.
A lengthy shutdown could affect the supply of steel products to its major customers, including the carmakers.
