Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corporation (NSSMC) has reported a power failure at its Nagoya Works in Japan.

The power failure, which occured at around 1450hrs on Sunday 22 June, led to the plant burning off coke oven gas and this resulted in a substantial amount of smoke being released. By 2300hrs power was restored to manufacturing facilities and individual units of equipment had been inspected and started up one by one.

The coke oven gas was burnt off and released into the atmosphere safely

NSSMC said it deeply regretted any inconvenience experienced by local residents and other related parties and added that no injuries had been reported as a result of the incident.

The plant's coke ovens resumed operation on Monday 23 June, the blast furnace was back in action on 24 June and other items of major equipment will come back on stream as the days progress.

The company has announced plans to investigate the cause of the power failure and 'make utmost efforts to prevent the recurrence of this situation'.