Japanese steelmaker Nippon Steel's subsidiary Nippon Steel & Sumikin Stainless Steel Corporation (NSSC) has announced that, based on a world-first technology originally developed by NSSC that drastically enhances the corrosion resistance of ferritic stainless steel by adding a micro amount of tin (Sn), it has newly developed and commercialized NSSC® FW2 (forward two), a "highly corrosion-resistant, low-interstitial ferritic stainless steel."
FW2 is manufactured by adding about 0.3 percent of tin to the base steel with 16 percent chromium content and no nickel. In addition, the content of rare metals in its production was reduced by a total of 40 percent compared to the most common grade of the product, i.e., SUS304.
NSSC has steadily received expanding orders for its NSSC® FW1, marketed in July, receiving over 2,000 inquiries in half a year. Currently, its orders amount to 10,000 mt per year.
NSSC proposes that these new FW-series products could make great candidates for a new general-purpose grade, overtaking the two leading types of steel available (SUS304 and SUS430), which account for more than 50 percent of all distributed stainless steel.
Furthermore, the FW series products contribute to the conservation of rare metals because they utilize ultra fine-grain steel with low alloy elements (no added Ni, Mo, or Cu, and with a reduction of Cr); thus, they are also stable in cost by minimizing the effect of the fluctuations of raw material prices.