JFE Steel to Add Scrap Melting Shaft Furnace at Keihin

JFE Steel announced on Tuesday the firm adds new shaft furnace at Keihin area of East Japan works for 10 billion yen. The firm starts construction of one of the largest furnaces in Japan with annual 500,000-600,000 tonnes of scrap melting capacity starting the operation in August 2008. The furnace, which melts ferrous scrap with coke, halves carbon dioxide emission with the exhaust gas recovering system compared with traditional blast furnace and converter steel making. The president Hajime Bada said the firm tries to improve the environmental action under stable production. JFE said the firm decided to add the furnace at Keihin area where the firm has spare room for the furnace and can collect scrap easily in the largest scrap market around Tokyo along with support by local government. The firm considers adding the furnace at other works in mid-term. The furnace, which has state of the art sensor used JFE’s blast furnace operation technology, can recover energy efficiently by collecting gas along with lower cost while the furnace can make products with stable quality and high productivity. The firm said the furnace’s CO2 emission is a tonne per a tonne of steel compared with 2 tonnes for blast furnace and converter process. The firm inputs the steel from the new furnace into converter with blast furnace made pig iron and scrap. The firm expects government of Kanagawa prefecture, which includes Keihin area, subsidizes around 1 billion yen out of 10 billion yen of the investment to support companies will invest in facilities and create new job in the region. The government welcomes JFE’s investment because of the environmental friendly new technology to reduce carbon dioxide emission.