Kobe Steel`s new plant takes only 10 minutes to make iron

TOKYO, Jan. 14 Kyodo -
Kobe Steel Ltd. said Thursday it has started operations at an iron-making plant
in the United States that takes only 10 minutes to manufacture iron, compared
with eight hours normally needed at conventional blast furnaces.
At the plant in Minnesota, Kobe Steel has introduced a disk-shaped furnace
which conducts heat more easily in a new process called ''ITmk3'' developed by
the company, it said.
The new furnace, which began operations on Tuesday, was built by Kobe Steel and
U.S. iron making firm Steel Dynamics Inc., Kobe Steel said.
Though the production capacity of the new process is smaller than that of the
blast furnace method, the new procedure can cut carbon dioxide emissions by
about 20 percent by shortening production time, it said.
The new furnace can also use low-quality iron ore and coals as raw materials,
although they had been considered difficult to use in the traditional blast
furnace method.
Kobe Steel plans to gradually increase steel production using the new process
and raise annual production capacity to 500,000 tons in mid-2010, it said.
The company said it also plans to disseminate the new technology to steelmakers
and mining companies in such countries as Vietnam, India, Russia and Australia.
==Kyodo