Shanxi Province-based Chinese steelmaker Taiyuan Iron & Steel Co.'s (
TISCO) subsidiary Taiyuan Stainless Steel Tube Co. has succeeded in producing the world's first extruded W-section steel, which will be mainly used to hold pipes in place in nuclear fission reactors.
W-section steel is generally made by means of a hot rolling and welding process. However, the hot rolling costs are high, while materials of large thicknesses are hard to weld. Taiyuan Stainless Steel Tube Co. spent several years to research and develop the W-section steel, eventually succeeding in producing the products in question with a 60MN extruder.