Sumitomo Metal Mining Co Ltd will produce 1,000 tonnes less nickel than planned in the April-September period due to a drop in demand from companies using the metal to make cathode ray tube televisions.
Japan's largest producer would make 15,100 tonnes of refined nickel in the first half of its fiscal year after it began cutting output from July, a company spokesman said. "There were calls from our customers to cut orders for the material," he said.
Sumitomo Metal Mining had not decided how much nickel it would produce in the six months from October, the spokesman said.
Manufacturers of CRT TVs use a nickel alloy to produce shadow masks, but demand for the material has slowed due to the rising popularity of flat panel TVs, traders said.
In April, Sumitomo Metal Mining said it planned to produce 16,100 tonnes of refined nickel in the April-September period of this year, or about 2,680 tonnes a month. Last year the company produced 15,000 tonnes in the April-September period.
Sumitomo Metal Mining's shares closed up 2.05 percent at 846 yen, while the Nikkei average ended up 1.2 percent at 12,453.14.
Japan's output of CRT TVs in the January-July period of 2005 fell 25.5 percent from a year earlier to 2.44 million units, data from the Japan Electronics and Information Technology Industries Association showed.
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