Material Balance

At Kobe Steel, 95% of the energy usage is in the Iron & Steel Business. In fiscal 2012, this business unit used 10.75 million tons of iron ore, 5.85 million tons of coking coal and coke, 9PJ¹ of fuels such as coal, oil and municipal gas, and 980,000 MWh of purchased power. Nearly all of the byproduct gases -- including coke oven gas, blast furnace gas and converter gas – derived from production processes are effectively reused as fuel for reheating steel or for use in inhouse generators. Kobe Steel also proactively implements power generation that utilizes waste heat. Combined with the power generated from byproduct gases, over 50% of the power required by production processes is generated through energy recovery.

Additionally, byproducts produced during production processes, such as slag², dust and sludge, are also turned to effective use as raw materials in applications such as cement and roadbeds. Together with in-company re-use, 96% of byproducts are recycled in this manner.

In the future, Kobe Steel will continue to pursue environmentally friendly practices throughout all aspects of its operations, striving for more efficient use of resources and energy and advancing the development of new technologies to that end.

1. 1PJ=1015J
2. Slag is a byproduct recovered from ironmaking and steelmaking.

Using metal wires, hoops, fluxes, soluble glass and other raw materials, the Welding Business produces welding electrodes and welding wires. In fiscal 2012 the Fujisawa, Ibaraki, Saijo and Fukuchiyama plants used a combined 180,000 tons of raw materials, 66,000 MWh of electricity, and 0.2PJ of municipal gas and other fuels to manufacture 170,000 tons worth of products. This generated 16,000 tons of byproducts, of which 97% was successfully recycled.

Using ingots and scrap metal as raw materials, the Aluminum & Copper Business produces a variety of aluminum and copper products. In fiscal 2012 the business unit used 350,000 tons of raw materials, 430,000 MWh of electricity, and 3.3PJ of municipal gas and other fuels to create 320,000 tons of products.

During melting and casting, 26,000 tons of waste products, such as slag, dust and wastewater sludge, were produced. However, 97% of this waste was successfully recycled.