Material Balance

The Kobe Steel Group undertakes environmental management that takes the environment into consideration at every stage of its operations. As part of this approach, the Group continuously strives for greater energy efficiency; effective use of byproduct gases, waste heat, water and other resources; and the recycling of byproducts.

At Kobe Steel, Ltd., 95 percent of the energy used is consumed by the Iron & Steel Business. In fiscal 2018, this business division used 10.37 million tons of iron ore; 5.65 million tons of coking coal and coke; 8PJ^*1 of fuels such as coal, oil and city gas; and 650,000 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 in-house power plants. Kobe Steel also actively undertakes power generation that utilizes waste heat. Combined with the power generated from byproduct gases, over 60 percent of the power required by production processes is generated through energy recovery.

In addition, byproducts produced during production processes, such as iron and steel slag^*2, dust and sludge, are also turned to effective use as raw materials in applications such as cement and roadbeds. Together with in-company reuse, 97 percent of the byproducts are recycled in this manner.

In the future, Kobe Steel will continue to carry out environmentally friendly manufacturing 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.

Using metal wire rods, hoops, fluxes, soluble glass and other raw materials, the Welding Business produces welding electrodes and welding wires. In fiscal 2018 the Fujisawa, Ibaraki, Saijo and Fukuchiyama plants used a total of 170,000 tons of raw materials, 63,000 MWh of electricity, and 0.2 PJ of city gas and other fuels to manufacture 160,000 tons of products. This generated 17,000 tons of byproducts, of which 98 percent was successfully recycled.

Using ingots and scrap as raw materials, the Aluminum & Copper Business produces a variety of aluminum and copper products. In fiscal 2018, the business division used 470,000 tons of raw materials, 520,000 MWh of electricity, and 4 PJ of city gas and other fuels to create 440,000 tons of products.

During melting and casting, 31,000 tons of byproducts, such as slag, dust and wastewater sludge, were produced. However, 96 percent of these byproducts were successfully recycled.