October 12, 2008

JFE Steel to raise capacity at Japanese plant

MarketWatch reported that JFE Steel Corp will boost its production capacity at its key steel making plant in western Japan to better meet growing demand for high grade steel products on a global basis.

JFE, a unit of JFE Holdings Inc, said that it will spend about JPY 50 billion to launch new facilities for slabs, an intermediate steel product, at its plant in Fukuyama. It said that the new facilities, slated to kick off production by September 2010, will help boost annual crude steel output by 1.5 million tonnes at its facilities in the Fukuyama area to 13 million tonnes.