Material Balance

The KOBELCO Group promotes environmental management taking 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., 94 percent of the energy used is consumed by the Iron & Steel Business. In fiscal 2019, this business division used 10.38 million tons of iron ore; 5.36 million tons of coking coal and coke; 10PJ^*1 of fuels such as coal, oil and city gas; and 660,000 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.

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, 96 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 2019 the Fujisawa, Ibaraki, Saijo and Fukuchiyama plants used a total of 160,000 tons of raw materials, 62,000 MWh of electricity, and 0.2 PJ of city gas and other fuels to manufacture 150,000 tons of products. This generated 13,000 tons of byproducts, of which 97 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 2019, the business division used 430,000 tons of raw materials, 500,000 MWh of electricity, and 4 PJ of city gas and other fuels to create 410,000 tons of products.

During melting and casting, 31,000 tons of byproducts, such as slag, dust and wastewater sludge, were produced. However, 97 percent of these byproducts were successfully recycled.