United States Steel Corporation (US Steel) of Pennsylvania and Japan's JFE Steel Corporation (JFE) have announced the signing of a technical exchange agreement for the purpose of sharing expertise in the general areas of steelmaking practices.
Under the terms of the deal, US Steel will provide JFE with its know-how on the operation of a blast furnace that uses a relatively high ratio of scrap steel as its raw material, while JFE will provide its environmental technologies to US Steel, in an effort to boost productivity and efficiency as well as lower costs.
The program will be managed by each company's research and technology organizations and will be carried out through periodic meetings, cooperative technical exchange programs and plant visits to be held in North America, Europe and Japan.
Commenting on the agreement, US Steel Executive Vice President and COO John H. Goodish said, "By sharing our expertise in a variety of steelmaking areas, we will each become more globally competitive and enhance the sustainability of steel - the raw material of modern society."
JFE and US Steel cooperated in plant equipment sales in the past; however, this is JFE's first technical exchange program with a leading US-based steel company. US Steel has been cooperating with Japanese steelmaker Kobe Steel Ltd. in the production of zinc-coated automotive steel products, whereas JFE already has technology and production partnerships with Germany's ThyssenKrupp and Canada's ArcelorMittal-owned Dofasco in downstream areas such as automotive sheet steel.