JFE Steel announced that it will install a new electric-arc furnace at the No. 4 steelmaking shop of its Chiba District facility, which will enable the production of stainless steel using relatively large amounts of scrap to reduce CO2 emissions. The electric-arc furnace will be installed at a cost of about 15 billion yen and is expected to be commissioned in H2 of the fiscal year starting in April 2025.
The shop currently manufactures stainless steel through a process that uses feedstocks consisting mainly of molten iron from blast furnaces, self-generated scrap, chromium ore and chromium-containing dust. The new electric-arc furnace will allow the facility to increase its use of scrap up to approximately sixfold (about 300,000 tons per year), in place of molten iron, to reduce CO2 emissions by a maximum of about 450,000 tons per year.
JFE Steel views the remaining time until 2030 as a transitional period during which it will convert to low-carbon processes in the company’s effort to become carbon neutral.