Toho Titanium to Add New Ingot Making Furnace at Yahata

Toho Titanium’s president Takeshi Kurushima said at press conference on Thursday the firm expands titanium ingot making capacity at Yahata plant in Kitakyushu by adding electron beam furnace with annual 10,000 tonnes of output capacity for around 5 billion yen. The firm launches the new furnace in mid-fiscal 2013 starting April 2013. The firm tries to follow growing demand through the expansion.

The firm has vacuum arc melting furnace at Chigasaki plant in Kanagawa and electron beam furnaces at Hitachi plant in Ibaraki and Yahata plant. The total ingot production capacity is apparently around 12,000 tonnes per year. With the new furnace, the ingot output capacity will increase by around 80%.

The firm increases the titanium sales by 38.5% to 10,800 tonnes in fiscal 2011 from fiscal 2010. When the sales volume is near the capacity, the firm decided the expansion to increase the output under growing demand.

The firm increases the sponge titanium output by 54.1% to 22,800 tonnes in fiscal 2011 from fiscal 2010. The sales increase by 37.8% to total 22,600 tonnes including ingot. The sales increase by 37.2% to 11,800 tonnes for sponge, by 46.7% to 8,800 tonnes for rolled products and by 15.4% to 3,000 tonnes for steel making additive.