Growing demand prompts Kobe Steel to start new CGL

Kobe Steel, Japan’s third largest integrated mill, has started commercial production on a new continuous hot-dip galvanizing line (CGL) at its Kakogawa Works in western Japan to meet the need for ultra-high strength sheets for automotive applications, the company announced on March 25.

The new CGL, called the No.3, has a design capacity of 240,000 tonnes/year. With an in-line cold rolling mill, it combines a continuous annealing line and hot-dipped galvanizing and galvanneal line to produce cold-rolled sheets, galvanized and galvannealed sheets. Kakogawa is Kobe Steel’s only production base for automotive sheets in Japan, a company official