Environment-friendly Production (3) Sustainability Report || KOBE STEEL, LTD.

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		Environmental Management Environmental Sustainability Report 2004

Environment-friendly Production (3)

Chemical substances which are necessary in our lives can damage the ozone layer, human health and the ecosystem unless appropriate control is carried out. Kobe Steel shall continue to properly maintain its environmental facilities; thoroughly control chemical use or reduce the use of chemical substances; and switch to safer alternative substances.

Uncompromising Control

Kobe Steel set up the Company-wide Chemical Substance Control Policy and strives for thorough control of chemical substances.
To our regret last year, we greatly inconvenienced communities as we calculated the emission rate of hexavalent chromium under an erroneous concept, which was reported in compliance with the PRTR Law. With our firm resolution never to make the same mistake again, we formulated and began to use the Control Sheet for Designated Chemical Substances, a standardized form, in all the offices throughout the company. With this Sheet, usage and management methods are defined for each chemical substance. The transferred amount and released amount reported in accordance with the PRTR Law can be calculated accurately. In this way, the content required to be reported under the PRTR Law can be abided and the amount of consumption and emissions of the substances can be strictly controlled. Group companies are being urged to adopt this Sheet for chemical substance control.
In the total of the values reported in fiscal 2003 in compliance with the PRTR Law, Kobe Steel handled 32 substances, released 240 metric tons, and transferred 190 metric tons in total.

*PRTR: Pollutant Release and Transfer Register (Law concerning Reporting, etc. of Releases to the Environment of Specific Chemical Substances and Promoting Improvements in their Management)

Yearly release and transfer of chemicals specified in the PRTR Law (parent company only))

Unit: kg (dioxins: mg-TEQ)

Government ordinance No.	Substance	Number of handling works/plants	Release	Transfer
1	Water soluble zinc compounts	1	47	0
40	Ethyl benzene	2	6200	340
44	Ethylene glycol ethyl ether	1	63	18
59	P-octylphenol	1	15	1,470
63	Xylene	10	56,000	6,800
68	Chromium and trivalent chromium compounds	6	66	40,000
69	Hexavalent chromium compounds	3	0	250
87	Arsenic and its compounds	1	65	0
99	Vanadium pentaoxide	1	24	1,100
100	Cobalt and its compounds	2	0	0
101	Ethylene glycol monoethyl ether acetate	1	98	27
132	1,1-dichloro-1-fluoroethane	2	11,000	0
145	Methylene chloride	2	60,000	5,500
179	Dioxins	6	3,600	980
207	Water soluble salts of copper	1	460	3,400
211	Trichloroethylene	1	21,000	0
224	1,3,5-trimethyl benzene	3	4,700	5,200
227	Toluene	7	48,000	290
230	Lead and its compounds	2	12	410
231	Nickel	5	0.7	1,100
232	Nickel compounds	3	20	12,000
253	Hydrazine	3	1,200	0
266	Phenol	1	0	1,400
283	Hydrogen fluoride and water-soluble salts	4	24,000	44,000
299	Benzene	1	14	0
304	Boron and its compounds	3	19	150
307	Poly(oxyethylene) alkyl ether	1	0	5,400
309	Nonylphenyl ether	1	120	60
311	Manganese and its compounds	8	5,000	41,000
345	Mercaptoacetic acid	1	0	2,500
346	Molybdenum and its compounds	4	1,100	16,000
353	Trisphosphate (dimethylphenyl)	2	0	3,600

Efforts to reduce hazardous substances

At theMoka Plant, the use of dichloromethane for degreasing cleaners of aluminum plates was abolished in 2001. Shinko Fab Tech, Ltd. switched from using trichloroethylene for degreasing cleaners in the aluminum tube cleaning process to hydrocarbon based cleaners by remodeling the equipment in November 2003. AtShinwa Wood Works, Ltd., the preservative applied to the wooden frames of packaging material was changed to agents free of arsenic and other harmful substances.		Aluminum pipe cleaning facilities (Shinko Fab Tech)

PCB control

Kobe Steel properly stores transformers, capacitors, and other components which contain PCB (polychlorinated biphenyl) in special-purpose storage and reports in compliance with the "Law concerning Special Measures against PCB Wastes."

Measures to Maintain the Ozone Layer

In order to protect life from harmful ultraviolet light, it is imperative to reduce the use of ozone-depleting substances. To comply with the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer, Kobe Steel stopped using cleaners containing designated CFCs at the end of fiscal 1994.

Measures against Dioxins

For waste incinerators, not only the amount of incinerated wastes is reduced by promoting collection of source separated refuse and recycling but also thoroughgoing operation control is implemented, such as preliminary screening of waste, equipment management, and combustion control. In addition, Kobe Steel controls the operation of sintering furnaces in compliance with the self-imposed guidelines of the iron and steel industry and implements meticulous equipment control and operation control for wastewater from aluminum alloy facilities, steelmaking electric furnaces, and wet waste gas scrubbers. With respect to dioxins generated unintentionally in these manufacturing processes, they are well below the compliance level.
Kobe Steel will continue to strive for suppression of releasing dioxins by improvement and maintenance control of the facilities as well as appropriate operation control.