JFE Steel Restarts Kurashiki’s No.3 Blast Furnace Operation

JFE Steel restarted no.3 blast furnace in Kurashiki area of West Japan iron works on February 11th, which had suspended since January 2009. The furnace volume was expanded to 5,055 cubic meters from previous 4,359 cubic meters with the investment at about 30 billion yen. West Japan iron works now operates 4 blast furnaces with over 5,000 cubic meters, 2 in Kurashiki area and 2 in Fukuyama area.

The works stopped Kurashiki’s no.3 blast furnace in January 2009 and Fukuyama‘s no.3 blast furnace in February 2009 due to the demand dropdown after the world financial crisis in autumn 2008. The works’ annual crude steel output decreased by 22% to 16.352 million tonnes in 2009 from 2008.

West Japan iron works now operates total 6 blast furnaces. The total furnace volume is approximately 27,500 cubic meters. The works’ crude steel output is expected to be 18 million tonnes in fiscal 2009 ending in March 2010.

Mr. Hiroshi Nomura, center president of the works, said West Japan iron works is the world no.1 iron works with 4 blast furnaces in operations at above 5,000 cubic meters. Mr. Nomura said the works decided to restart no.3 blast furnace since steel demand had recovered mainly from automobiles. The works will meet the customers’ demand by utilizing the works’ functions fully.