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Japan’s JFE expects 1.4 mil mt loss in crude steel output on furnace problems

Japan’s second-largest integrated steelmaker JFE Steel expects to lose a total 1.4 million mt of crude steel output due to problems at its three blast furnaces, a JFE spokesman said Monday.

Output loss from the No. 2 blast furnace, with an inner volume of 4,100 cu m, at the Kurashiki section of its West Japan Works is now expected at 700,000 mt, after JFE deferred bringing the furnace back to pre-banking level to early February.

The company has temporary banked the furnace on October 23 and the furnace was initially expected to return to pre-banking level by end-December. But this was extended to mid-January, with the loss in output then expected to expand to 500,000 mt, from 400,000 mt.

The No. 6 blast furnace, with an inner volume of 5,153 cu m, at the Chiba section of its East Japan Works, was temporary banked on December 13. It has returned to the pre-banking level by mid-January as planned, and the output loss from the No. 6 furnace was 400,000 mt.

JFE has also temporarily banked the No. 4 blast furnace, with an inner volume of 5,000 cu m, at the Fukuyama section of West Japan Works on January 5. The company expects it to return to pre-banking level by end-February, and the output loss is estimated at around 300,000 mt.

The company has established a team to investigate the problems and will take measures to prevent future issues, the spokesman said. “We will take measures to prevent these problems from happening again. We are considering installing advanced IT such as artificial IT,” he said.

He added that since Chiba has only one furnace, JFE needed to ask other companies for support. As for Kurashiki and Fukuyama, both have three furnaces each and output was raised at the other furnaces. “But we still needed to negotiate with customers for delivery period,” he said.

JFE has a total of eight blast furnaces across Japan.

Kurashiki produced total 8.91 million mt of crude steel during the 2017-2018 fiscal year (April-March), those by Chiba was 3.81 million mt and by Fukuyama was 11.08 million mt, according to the company.
Source: Platts

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