Kobe Steel to Realize 8.2 million tonnes of Raw Steel Output Capacity

Kobe Steel establishes annual 8.2 million tonnes of raw steel output capacity after the completion of expansion of no.3 blast furnace at Kobe works on December 18. The firm started the relining works on November 2 to expand the inner capacity from 1,845 cubic meters to 2,112 cubic meters. The firm already switched to new no.2 blast furnace with 5,400 cubic meters of capacity at Kakogawa works while the firm stopped the operation of old no.1 blast furnace with 4,550 cubic meters in May. The firm expanded the total blast furnace capacity by around 1,100 cubic meters increasing the pig iron output by annual 700,000-800,000 tonnes. The firm produced record 7.83 million tonnes of raw steel in fiscal 2006 ended March 2007 after more than 7 million tonnes of output since fiscal 2003 while the firm’s output was less than 7 million tonnes in fiscal 2000-2002. The firm expects the raw steel output reaches 8.1 million tonnes with commissioning of no.2 furnace at Kakogawa while the relining outage of no.3 furnace at Kobe for 48 days limits the output. The firm tries to increase the output to full capacity of 8.2 million tonnes in and after fiscal 2008.