Japan's Kobe Steel Develops New Low-Cost Production Technique

April 12, 2006
Kobe Steel said April 12 it has co-developed a way of producing high-grade steel from low-cost materials, a technique that it hopes to sell to other companies.  Kobe Steel has built an experimental plant in Minnesota with two of its U.S. partners, ...

Kobe Steel said April 12 it has co-developed a way of producing high-grade steel from low-cost materials, a technique that it hopes to sell to other companies. Kobe Steel has built an experimental plant in Minnesota with two of its U.S. partners, electric furnace steelmaker Steel Dynamics Inc and iron ore producer Cleveland-Cliffs Inc.

"The new plant with the completely new technique can produce high-grade steel quickly and with low-cost materials," said Kobe Steel spokeswoman Miki Kasuga. Unlike a blast furnace or an electric furnace, the new technique makes steel from iron ore pellets placed on a rotating furnace, she said.

Blast furnaces are generally suited for making such high-grade products as automotive steel from iron ore and coal on a large scale, while electric furnaces are used to produce mainly construction steel from scrap iron. The new technique produces high-grade steel although analysts said it was unlikely to be such high quality as product from a blast furnace.

"Compared with electric furnace product, a rotating furnace is expected to provide better quality. But it still wouldn't be as high-grade as blast furnace steel," said Tomomichi Nagaoka, a steel analyst at Moody's Japan. "Rotating furnace steel would overlap the market of electric furnace, likely to be used for machinery, not for automotive or home appliances," he said.

The Nihon Keizai reported that the Minnesota plant, which is expected to reduce materials costs to about one-third of those for a blast furnace, will start up at an initial rate of about 500,000 tons a year as early as 2008. However, Kobe denied it intended to construct the plant itself. "We are trying to sell the technique and plant to other companies as an engineering firm, not produce more steel as a steelmaker," Kasuga said.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2006

Popular Sponsored Recommendations

Navigating Disruption: A Leader’s Guide to Strategy Under Uncertainty

Nov. 1, 2023
AI, sustainability, digital--industrials are facing disruptive forces that are redefining what it takes to win. What got your company where it is today won’t get you where you...

How Digital Twin Technology is Empowering Manufacturers

Sept. 27, 2023
This FAQ delves into why this technology offers business value and considerations toward implementation.

Gain a competitive edge with real-world lessons on private 5G networks

Nov. 16, 2023
The use of private networks in manufacturing applications is rapidly growing. In this paper, we present valuable insights and lessons learned from the field with the goal of enhancing...

Shifting Your Business from Products to Service-Based Business Models: Generating Predictable Revenues

Oct. 27, 2023
Executive summary on a recent IndustryWeek-hosted webinar sponsored by SAP

Voice your opinion!

To join the conversation, and become an exclusive member of IndustryWeek, create an account today!