Sumitomo Metals Conducts a Blowing-In of Wakayama Steel Works' New No. 1 Blast Furnace

On July 17, Sumitomo Metal Industries, Ltd. (Sumitomo Metals) will conduct a blowing-in of the Wakayama Steel Works' new No.1 blast furnace. The Wakayama Steel Work's investments of replacing upstream facilities (the 1st step) and environmental protection will be completed with a blowing-in of the new No.1 blast furnace.
The new No. 1 blast furnace will replace the No. 4 blast furnace which was blown-out on July 11. The No. 4 blast furnace has achieved the world's record for the longest operating life of 10,001 days (about 27 years and 4 months).

2. Features
(1) Measures to extend duration of operation
We plan to run the new No.1 blast furnace for more than 25 years. The furnace has been designed by utilizing Sumitomo Metals' various long-accumulated technologies for maintenance and analysis, the same technology applied for the No. 1 blast furnace at the Kashima Steel Works

(2) Capacity expansion of crude steel production
The new No. 1 blast furnace has an inner volume of 3,700 ㎥ . By replacing the No. 4 blast furnace with an inner volume of 2,700 ㎥ , crude steel production capacity at the Wakayama Steel Works will increase to 4.5 million tons per year.

3. Investments of replacing upstream facilities at the Wakayama Steel Works
At the Wakayama Steel Works, we have replaced upstream facilities, with main investments in construction of the new No. 1 blast furnace (operation start: July 2009), the new No. 1 coke oven (operation start: May 2009), and an increased capacity of a sintering plant (operation start: January 2009). We have also made investments for environmental protection, including an increase in capacity of the Coke Dry Quenching (CDQ) unit. The total investments amounted to 160 billion yen.

In October 2007, we decided to construct the new No. 2 blast furnace (expected operation start:second half of FY 2012) to replace the No. 5 blast furnace currently in operation. The new furnace will be a twin to the new No. 1 blast furnace, built to the same specifications. By sharing operational know-how and spare parts, stable operation and cost reduction are expected. Steelmaking facilities will also be augmented. The total investment amount is expected to be 115 billion yen.

The Wakayama Steel Works will have a capacity of 5.2 million metric tons of crude steel production with these investments and prosper together with its community.

(Reference)

Wakayama Steel Works' New No. 1 Blast Furnace