JFE plans to increase stainless steel output

JFE plans to increase stainless steel output

According to the news in the market, Japanese steel producer JFE Steel has recently announced that it plans to increase the production capacity of stainless steel by 100'000 tons. JFE will invest Yen 4 billion at its East Japan Works in Chiba to renovate the rolling equipment by September 2004. With this expansion plan, the company aims to resolve the shortage of supply in tandem facility products for automobile makers or in hot rolled sheet for rerollers in Asia. The company will also renovate its annealing and pickling line and cold rolling line. After the renovation, the monthly capacity of annealing and pickling line and cold rolling line will increase to 42'000 tons and 15'000 tons respectively. JFE will increase the production capacity of stainless steel to 840'000 tons, steel sheet output to 700'000 tons and seamless pipe output to 140'000 tons. After this capacity expansion, JFE will be the second largest supplier of stainless steel to Nippon Steel and Sumitomo Stainless.