Japanese steelmaker JFE Steel has announced that it has been granted government funding for its green transformation project planned for its West Japan Works. In November this year, together with fellow Japanese steelmaker Nippon Steel, the company had applied for funding under Japan’s “Green Transformation Promotion Act” to advance research and development efforts on decarbonizing their operations, as SteelOrbis reported previously.
Within the scope of the project, JFE Steel will invest JPY 324.9 billion ($2.07 billion), of which the government will provide JPY 104.5 billion ($665.26 million), to build an advanced electric arc furnace (EAF) at its plant. In the meantime, the new EAF with a production capacity of around 2 million mt per year will be equipped with state-of-the art technologies such as high quality and efficient melting technology and will use direct reduced iron (DRI). As a result, the Japanese steelmaker will commission the world’s largest EAF that mass produces high-quality and high-performance steel products such as electrical steel sheets and high-tensile steel sheets, that are unable to be produced in the current large EAFs.
The EAF is planned to begin operations in the first quarter of the financial year 2028-29.
