JFE Mineral to Double Ni Ultra Fine Powder Output for Capacitor

JFE Mineral, a subsidiary of JFE Steel, announced on Tuesday the firm doubles its output capacity of nickel ultra fine powder which is used for multi-layer ceramic capacitors. The firm will expand the productive capacity by 30% at an existent plant inside JFE Steel’s East Japan works, Chiba, Japan by the end of March 2009 with 10 billion yen investment. At the same time, the firm will construct a new plant inside JFE Steel group’s site in West Japan. The new plant construction will complete in spring 2009. The total output capacity will double to 2,000 tonnes per annum from current 1,000 tonnes.Multi-layer ceramic capacitors store and emit electricity inside electronic appliances, which are recently used more for cellular phones, personal computers and flat panel televisions. The global demand is expected to continue 2 digit growth every year toward 2 trillion parts per year from 1.2 trillion parts in 2006.Nickel ultra fine powder is used as an electrode material inside multi-layer ceramic capacitors. JFE Mineral holds 50% global share of nickel ultra fine powder. The firm decided to expand the output capacity with expectation that the demand increases by more than 20% in 2008 compared with 2007.