Kobe Steel, Ltd.
Kobe Steel, Ltd. held a ceremony on Saturday, January 21, to mark the completion of the new No. 6 Continuous Caster and expansion of the No. 2 Bloom Mill at Kakogawa Works.
Approximately 220 people from construction companies and partner companies attended the event. The major participants from Kobe Steel included Yoshinori Onoe, Executive Vice President and Representative Director; Koichiro Shibata, Senior Managing Executive Officer and General Manager of Kakogawa Works; and Shoji Miyazaki, Executive Officer and General Manager of Kobe Works.
“The outstanding traditions and technology of Kobe Works will be extended to Kakogawa Works, so that we can produce even better steel products,” said Executive Vice President Yoshinori Onoe.
To further strengthen its competitiveness, Kobe Steel plans to shut down Kobe Works’ upstream operations (from the blast furnace to continuous casters) at the end of October 2017 and consolidate these operations at Kakogawa Works. Kobe Steel has invested a total of about 65.5 billion yen in this consolidation, which is anticipated to improve profitability by about 15.0 billion yen. The investment in the two facilities is a part of the consolidation. The completion of these facilities prepares Kakogawa Works for upstream consolidation. Kobe Steel will now proceed with quality verification and gaining user approval, in preparation for consolidated operation from November 2017.
Outline of Capital Investments
No. 6 Continuous Caster
- Purpose:
- To cast blooms for wire rod and bar products from molten steel
- Investment details:
- Installed a new continuous caster to make medium cross-section blooms
- Specifications:
- Cast size is the same as at Kobe Works (width 430 mm, thickness 300 mm)
No. 2 Bloom Mill
- Purpose:
- To roll blooms into billets for use in the wire rod mill and bar mill
- Investment details:
- Increased furnaces from 1 to 2 units in order to heat blooms before rolling. Transformed into a bloom mill with one of the world’s largest production capacities.
Additional Notes
- Capital investment for consolidating upstream operations
(Investment amount: About 65.5 billion yen; economic benefits: 15.0 billion yen per year)
Construction of new No. 6 continuous casting facility
Expanded No. 2 Bloom Mill (increased heating furnace from 1 to 2 units)
Expanded secondary refining equipment (increased RH vacuum degassing furnace from 3 to 4 units; increased ladle refining furnace from 1 to 2 units)
Improved the billet yard
- Additional investment to improve profitability
No. 2 Dephosphorization Furnace
(Investment amount: About 9.0 billion yen; economic benefits: over 2.0 billion yen per year)
Completion ceremony for the new equipment
Start-up ceremony for the new equipment
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