JFE Steel Corp, Japan’s second-largest producer, said a fire had forced it to shut a blast furnace at its Chiba works east of Tokyo
A build-up of pressure in the No.6 blast furnace led hot coke and melt to spill from the furnace on the afternoon of Monday 28 December. Fire crews took until around 4am the following Wednesday morning to extinguish it.
Japanese news reports say that the structure housing the No.6 furnace was severely damaged.
