Nippon Steel and Kobe Steel Starts RHF Construction in Hirohata

Nippon Steel and Kobe Steel announced on Tuesday the firms cooperatively construct and operate recycling equipment for steel mill dust. They will start operation of a rotary hearth furnace (RHF), developed by Kobe Steel, inside Nippon Steel’s Hirohata works in Hyogo, Japan in October 2011. They will recycle steel mill dust into direct reduced iron and utilize as an alternative material for iron ore and ferrous scrap. They will collect steel mill dust from Sanyo Special Steel of Nippon Steel Group or domestic business partners including Sumitomo Metal Industries and Nisshin Steel.

Hirohata works will become to operate 4 RHFs whose total capacity is 800,000 tonnes per year. Nippon Steel also holds 3 RHFs in Kimitsu works and 1 RHF at Nippon Steel & Sumikin Stainless Steel’s Hikari works. Nippon Steel Group’s total RHF capacity exceeds 1.4 million tonnes, which can process all steel mill dust generated inside Nippon Steel’s plants.

A new RHF will allow additional capacity to collect steel mill dust at 60,000 tonnes from Kobe Steel, 12,000 tonnes from Sanyo Special Steel and 60,000-70,000 tonnes from Sumitomo Metals and Nisshin Steel. Direct reduced iron production will be 1 million tonnes, equal as 1.2 million tonnes of iron ore.

Nippon Steel and Kobe Steel established a joint venture company to recycle steel mill dust, Nittetsu Shinko Metal Refine, in October 2008. The JV will start RHF construction in June with total investment of approximately 10 billion yen. The processing capacity is scheduled at 220,000 tonnes per year. The RHF will produce direct reduced iron at 150,000 tonnes per year from steel mill dust and low grade iron ore, supplying 120,000 tonnes or more to Nippon Steel and Sanyo Special Steel and 20,000 tonnes or more to Kobe Steel.