Kobe Steel’s ITmk3 Plant Starts Commercial Operation in USA

ITmk3, Kobe Steel’s next generation steel making process, started commercial operation on January 12th in USA. This is the first ITmk3 plant to be commercialized. Kobe Steel and Steel Dynamics Inc. (SDI) invested approximately 26 billion yen for the plant construction. The plant’s capacity is 500,000 tonnes per year. The plant is expected to enter full operation in mid 2010.

Mesabi Nugget Delaware (MND) directly operates the plant. MND was established with a capital at US$ 105 million, 19% invested by Kobe Steel and 81% by SDI. Kobe Steel licenses ITmk3 process, supplies main equipment and sends engineers to MND. SDI acquires all iron nugget produced at the plant and consumes in SDI’s steel sheet and other product plants.

Kobe Steel aims to popularize ITmk3 process globally by plant constructions in North America, Vietnam, India, Russia and Australia and expand the productive capacity to several million tonnes per year.

ITmk3 process realizes high grade iron nugget production from low grade iron ore in only 10 minutes (or 8 hours by a blast furnace). The process can reduce CO2 emission by about 20% compared with the blast furnace process. Total investment is about US$ 20 million to construct a plant with 500,000-tonne annual capacity, lower than the cost for a blast furnace. The process allows steel makers to secure iron sources stably. Iron ore miners may also increase the value of raw materials by having the plant.