Japan's Nisshin Steel boosts ferrite stainless output on demand - Metals. Tokyo (Platts)--19Jul2013/444 am EDT/844 GMT Japanese steelmaker Nisshin Steel has increased ferrite stainless steel production due to higher demand, with the product making up half of its stainless steel output in July, a company spokesman said Friday.
The stainless steelmaking plant's "run rate stays the same, but demand for chrome [ferritic] stainless steel has been brisk recently and it currently accounts for half of our stainless steel production," spokesman Mitsuhiro Murashita said. Nisshin has been producing around 30,000-40,000 mt/month of stainless steel at its Shunan plant in Hiroshima prefecture in western Japan. The output, which represents around 70% of its record high output of 700,000 mt/year before the 2008 global financial crisis, has remained stable since October, Murashita said. "Demand for nickel [austenitic] stainless grades, such as SUS304, is not positive," he said. --Mayumi Watanabe, mayumi.watanabe@platts.com --Edited by Meghan Gordon, meghan.gordon@platts.com. New technology has Bending Lake Iron excited about the potential for steel-making in NWO - Atikokan Progress and Printing.
The Bending Lake Iron Group is looking now at a new technology that could allow it to produce a higher quality iron pellet using a cleaner process, as well as produce a wholly new product.
It also offers an opportunity to produce steel products, like rebar, on-site. The company’s original plans were to use Kobe Steel’s ITMK3 technology to produce merchant pig iron; however, that new processing technology has hit some roadblocks in the refining process. Now, BLIG is exploring an electro-thermal process, also developed in Japan, which produces a higher grade iron pellet and a by-product known as slag cement (a.k.a. ground granulated blast-furnace slag). The process has been used in concrete projects for over a century, in bridges, plants, airport runways, etc. “If we add another furnace, we can custom mix our pig iron into making a steel product, if we ever wanted to go that far,” he said. “There is no reason they can’t build it here. Press release - Press releases - ThyssenKrupp AG. Press release, Oct. 25, 2011 - 14:10 PM (CEST) For the first time, customers in NAFTA countries can now buy stainless steel flat products in widths of 72 inches (183 centimeters) produced in the USA.
The corresponding units have gone into operation at ThyssenKrupp Stainless USA’s Alabama plant and are currently being ramped up. “Both customers and service centers have expressed great interest in 72 inch products. We are the only manufacturer in the USA and the NAFTA region who can offer this width,” says Dr. Ulrich Albrecht-Früh, CEO of ThyssenKrupp Stainless USA, a company of the Inoxum group. To date no stainless steel producer has manufactured 72 inch coils in the NAFTA region, and only small volumes have been imported. A hot strip annealing and pickling line and a second Sendzimir or 20-roll cold rolling mill have gone into operation in Alabama to manufacture the 72 inch coils.
Construction work on the 1 million ton per year capacity melt shop is continuing to proceed on schedule.