Strengths of Chubu Steel Sheet (5461)
In high furnaces, iron ore and coke (coal) are put into a large furnace (high furnace) 100 meters high or more, and iron is extracted by melting and reducing reactions. In electric furnaces, iron scrap raw materials are placed in an electric furnace and an arc discharge (a discharge similar to lightning mainly due to thermal electron emission, characterized by strong light and high heat) is generated by applying high voltage to the graphite electrode to melt the iron scrap with its heat and extract the iron.
The blast furnace is very large-scale and expensive to set up, but it is suitable for mass production because it can efficiently produce iron. However, once the facility is stopped, the iron in the furnace solidifies, and restarting it takes time and cost, making long-term continuous operation a prerequisite. Electric furnaces require relatively small-scale equipment and have lower equipment costs than blast furnaces. In addition, since it operates by repeatedly turning the power on and off, it is easy to adjust the operation according to the business environment and is suitable for producing multiple varieties in small quantities.
In terms of the environment, the blast furnace generates a lot of CO2 because oxygen in the iron ore and carbon in the coke react. The amount of CO2 emitted by electric furnaces is less than that of blast furnaces. The CO2 emitted by electric furnaces is mainly due to the electricity used, and because the raw material is iron itself, the amount of emissions is about 1/4 that of blast furnaces. It is expected that the CO2 emissions from electric furnaces will further decrease if the use of renewable energy for electricity increases in the future.
Electric furnace manufacturers are often associated with supplying materials for construction use, but in the case of this company, about 60% of the materials are used for industrial machinery and about 30% for civil engineering and construction. The strength is that they supply materials over a wide range compared to general electric furnace manufacturers. Furthermore, electric furnaces are strong in small lots, multi-variety production, and short delivery times.
The company is located in a city-type steelmaking plant in Nagoya. Aichi Prefecture not only has one of the most developed industrial areas in Japan, but also has very well-developed infrastructure due to its central location between Tokyo and Osaka. In addition, because a lot of iron scrap is generated from industrial areas, the company has the advantage of being able to procure the important raw material of iron scrap efficiently.
(Writer: FISCO analyst Tomoichi Murase)