Nippon Steel, the world's second-biggest steelmaker, said that it would double its planned output cuts for the October-March period in response to slowing demand for Japanese cars and machines.

Nippon Steel president Shoji Muneoka told a news conference the company now expects to cut output by four to 4.5 million tonnes in the October-March second half of the business year, a record high and up from previously announced plans to cut by 2m tonnes.

A reduction of 4m would cut output by about a quarter from the 16.5m tonnes produced in the first half.

"Japanese carmakers and other clients have been further reducing output since the turn of the year, as they grapple with high levels of stocks," Muneoka said.

"We need drastic output cuts to reduce our own stocks and prop up the market," he added.

He reiterated that Japan's steel market won't start recovering until April at the earliest, after carmakers' stocks are lowered to appropriate levels and they boost production to match real demand. "We are now seeing the worst," he added.

Japanese carmakers are expected to further reduce output over the next several months as car sales show no signs of recovery.

Toyota Motor, Japanese steelmakers' biggest customer, last week said it would cut production at several North American plants over the next several months in a bid to halve its inventory of vehicles.

Muneoka said that Nippon Steel would bring forward a planned suspension of a blast furnace in Oita, southern Japan, by one month to next month for maintenance and expects to restart it in May.