Japanese steelmaker JFE Steel has started operations at its seventh continuous casting (CC) facility at Kurashiki plant on June 16. The facility has an annual capacity to produce 2mn mt of thick and thin plates.
Work on the construction of the plant had commenced in November 2017, with an investment of JPY53mn. The initial outlay for the project was planned at JPY40mn. With the plant operational, the company stated it can cast large-section slabs with high efficiency. The technology used enables the company to use latest control mechanism and improve surface and internal quality of the slab.
The plant was initially planned to commence operations by second half of 2020.