JFE Steel Resumes Normal Operation at No.6 Furnace in Chiba

JFE Steel’s East Japan works resumed the normal operation of no.6 blast furnace at Chiba area after the fire accident in end of 2009. The works now operates the furnace with 5,153 cubic meters of inner capacity at more than 10,000 tonnes of pig iron output per day.

The works stopped the operation after the fire on December 28. The works restarted the operation on January 5 but the output was only less than 20,000 tonnes in January.

JFE Steel restarted no.3 blast furnace of Kurashiki area of West Japan works on February 11 after the relining and expanding to 5,055 cubic meters of inner capacity. The furnace already reaches normal operation.

JFE Steel plans 7.05 million tonnes of raw steel output capacity in January-March, which is 100,000 tonnes higher than October-December. The firm is sure to clear the target when the no.3 furnace at Kurashiki reaches stable operation sooner while the no.6 furnace took longer time to resume normal operation.

JFE Steel’s raw steel output was peak at 7.78 million tonnes in July-September 2008. The firm resumes around 90% level of the peak recently while the firm still stops the operation of one of the 9 furnaces. The firm expects the production will increase more in fiscal 2010 starting April after the expansion of no.3 furnace at Kurashiki.

The firm has no plan to restart of the one-year idled furnace at Fukuyama area of West Japan works. The firm still watches the demand condition enough to restart the furnace.