JFE Steel Corporation will construct and operate an advanced, high-efficiency, large-scale electric arc furnace at the Kurashiki facility of its West Japan Works, aiming to contribute to carbon neutrality in Japan. The move follows the Japanese government’s approval yesterday to provide JFE Steel with a grant to support the introduction of an electric arc furnace, and the government’s earlier decision on December 20, 2024, to accept JFE Steel’s proposal to participate in a national project aimed at the eventual realization of a carbon-neutral steelmaking process.
JFE Steel will now promptly proceed with the construction of an electric arc furnace, hoping to launch a new steelmaking process based on this innovative new technology at the earliest possible date. The first phase of the national project in which JFE Steel is participating is designed to transform various energy and manufacturing processes of industries that face particularly difficult challenges in reducing their emissions.
JFE Steel will construct various facilities, including an advanced electric arc furnace, off-site refining facilities, cold-iron-source distribution facilities, and an upgraded quay, at a cost of yen 329.4bn (about USD 2.2bn), of which a maximum yen 104.5bn is expected to be covered by a government grant. The advanced electric arc furnace will have an annual capacity of about two million tons of steel and is expected to start production in the first quarter of the fiscal year starting April 2028.