Tokyo Steel to Develop 590MPa Automotive High Tensile Flat Steel

Tokyo Steel Manufacturing starts hot run of rolling mill at the strategic automotive sheet steel supply base of Tahara plant in Aichi on Monday. The firm starts steel making operation at the new plant in March. The firm produces SAPH or JIS grade of hot rolled flat steel for automotive structural parts and tries to produce SPFH or higher grade of hot rolled high strength steel with improved formability for automotive structural parts. The firm develops high tensile flat steel up to 590 megapascal of tensile strength.

The firm already got JIS certification for SAPH with 310-440 MPa of tensile strength at Okayama plant. The firm suppliers hot rolled and pickling steel for automotive parts. The firm tries to develop higher grade of SPFH automotive steel with 490-590 MPa grade through technical development team at Tahara plant.

The Tahara plant’s rolling plant has reheat furnace by Chugai Ro, hot strip mill by IHI MetalTech and continuous pickling line by SMS Siemag. The plant can make higher grade flat steel with state of the art controlled rolling and cooling process. The mill can make hot rolled coil with 1,600 millimeters width while the firm can provide hot coil with 1,320 mm from Okayama.

The Tahara plant has direct current electric furnace with 300 tonnes of capacity, ladle furnace and vacuum degasser all provided by Danieli while the continuous caster is provided by SMS. Tokyo Steel expects the large single electric furnace operation can reduce the production cost by more than 10%. The firm tries to make automotive high tensile flat steel at the new plant with first vacuum degasser in Japanese electric furnace carbon steel makers.

The firm also studies to make large diameter steel square pipe for column with hot coil at Tahara. The firm could enter market with more than 300,000 tonnes per year of demand while the firm has to compete with existing players including Nippon Steel & Sumikin Metal Products, JFE Steel, Maruichi Steel Tube, Kyoei Kenzai and Nakajima Steel Pipe.