Nippon Steel advances $920 million Hirohata EAF project

Nippon Steel has chosen Nagoya-based special steelmaker and plant builder, Daido Steel, for the engineering work associated with its 500,000 tonnes/year electric arc furnace project in the Hirohata Area of its Setouchi Works in western Japan, the companies have announced. The supplier of the furnace itself is Italian plant builder, Tenova.

The EAF will have a heat size of 110 tonnes per charge and is scheduled to begin operations in the second half of fiscal 2029.

Nippon Steel had announced in June last year that as part of its decarbonization efforts, it would expand EAF capacity in Japan. The integrated mill had been among several companies selected by the Japanese government as eligible to receive support funding under Japan's new Green Transformation Promotion Act, as Mysteel Global reported. The Setouchi EAF project is costing Nippon Steel about Yen 140 billion ($920 million) of which the Japanese government is paying Yen 42.6 billion.

Daido Steel will use its own equipment technology to install the EAF, as well as design, manufacture, and install peripheral equipment, the company says. Besides those for its own special steel production, Daido has been designing and building EAFs for sale to other steelmakers since 1930 and has sold more than 240 units to date, it says. But the Setouchi unit will mark the first occasion for its plant engineering division to be involved in installing an EAF made by another company.

Not that Tenova is a stranger to Daido. For over 35 years, Tenova has been a licensee of Daido's 'Short Time Cycle' (STC) furnace technology that promises low product variability and improved temperature uniformity. Tenova had also incorporated Daido's advanced nitrogen control technology, in addition to a roller-hearth type STC furnace, at the Michigan plant of US steel wire processor Grand Blanc Processing's wire processing.

The new EAF at Setouchi will be Nippon Steel's second at the works, the company having commissioned a 720,000 t/y EAF furnace there in March 2023 for producing high-quality steel products such as electrical sheets, also as reported.

Nippon Steel is Daido Steel's third-largest shareholder, holding a stake of 5.26%, according to Daido's investor relations report.

Written by Russ McCulloch, russ.mcculloch@mysteel.com

Edited by Alyssa Ren, rentingting@mysteel.com