Posted on 27 Sep 2024
JFE Steel, Japan's second-largest integrated steelmaker after Nippon Steel, has completed the first phase expansion of its non-grain-oriented (NGO) electrical steel sheet facility in the Kurashiki area of its West Japan Works, the company announced on September 26.
The second phase expansion, announced in February last year, is set for completion during fiscal 2026 beginning in April that year, as Mysteel Global has reported.
"With the move to electrify automobiles gaining momentum as global society pursues carbon neutrality, demand for high-grade non-oriented electrical steel sheet, an essential material for electric vehicle drive motors, is on the rise, particularly in Japan, North America and Europe," JFE said in a statement.
The Japanese steelmakers regard silicon sheet as a strategic item and so never reveal their works' capacity, nor production, Mysteel Global notes.
For Phase 1 of the project, JFE had intended to invest Yen 49 billion ($340 million) and was budgeting Yen 50 billion for the second stage, but in Thursday's statement, the expected cost of the latter had dropped to Yen 46 billion. JFE says the additional expansion will "triple the company's original capacity".
The latest statistics from Japan Iron & Steel Federation show that during August, production of silicon sheets – both NGO and grain-oriented (GO) sheets used in transformers – decreased by a large 7.7% from July to 99,800 tonnes though this was up 4.6% on year. The result took the January-August total to 854,100 tonnes, up by a tiny 1.6% from the first eight months of last year. JFE said it had completed its Phase 1 expansion at Kurashiki in July.
"In response to global initiatives to enhance energy efficiency, JFE Steel is also increasing its supply capacity for grain-oriented steel sheet," the company declared, noting that in February this year, it had joined with India's JSW Steel in a 50-50 JV named "JSW JFE Electrical Steel Private" for production of grain-oriented electrical sheet (GOES) in India.
The new plant will be built in Bellary in southwest India's Karnataka state and should be commissioned in 2027, JFE said. The hot-rolled sheet substrate the plant will use will be supplied from JSW's nearby Vijayanagar plant in Karnataka.
Source:Mysteel Global
