The world's second biggest steelmaker Japan-based Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corp. (NSSMC) has announced that it has started to produce wire rods with diameters of 5.0 millimeters or less at its Kamaishi Works in Japan to meet the increased demand for ultra-small diameter wires, including demand for saw wires used to cut silicon wafers for photovoltaic generation.
NSSMC stated that its manufacturable range of small diameter wire rods is now 3.6 millimeters to 5.0 millimeters, and can be applied to a wide variety of steel types, such as wire rods for steel tire cords.