JFE Steel is the second largest Japanese steel manufacturer (after Nippon Steel). The company was created in 2002 through the merger of the steel manufacturing business of Kawasaki Steel and NKK (Nihon Kokan). It is owned by JFE Holdings, which is listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
Recent Mergers and Spinoffs
JFE Steel was created in 2002 as Kawasaki Steel absorbed the steel making business of Nihon Kokan (NKK). At the same time, NKK's engineering business absorbed Kawasaki Steel's engineering business to form JFE Engineering (JFEエンジニアリング).
In the same year of 2002, NKK's shipbuilding business was spun off as a separate entity, which in the same year merged with Hitachi Shipbuilding to form Universal Shipbuilding, that then in 2013 was merged with IHI's shipbuilding business to become Japan Marine United Corporation.
After these mergers and spinoffs, JFE Steel is the second largest steel company in Japan, after Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal. Overseas, it owns 49% of California Steel Industries, US. It is in a limited partnership with AK Steel, formerly called Armco. In Korea, it owns 15% of Dongkuk Steel. In China, it has a joint hot rolling and electrogalvanization mill with Guangzhou Iron & Steel Enterprise Group (广州钢铁企业集团). In Thailand, it owns 80% of Thai Cold Rolled Steel Sheet Public Co., Ltd., which produces electrogalvanized steel sheets.
History of Kawasaki Steel
Kawasaki Heavy Industries (KHI) started its business as a shipbuilding company in 1878 in Kawasaki, Kanagawa, and started to make steel for its own purpose in 1906. In the post-World War II recovery of 1950, KHI spun off its steel-making business as Kawasaki Steel.
Kawasaki Steel opened Chiba Iron Works in 1951, followed by Mizushima Iron Works, now called Kurashiki Iron Works, in 1961. In 1989, it entered into a limited partnership with Armco, US. The company was renamed AK Steel Holding in 1993 when it became publicly traded.[1] Kawasaki Steel together with Brazil's Vale do Rio Doce (now Vale) re-established California Steel Industries in 1986.
It made cooperative agreement with Korea's Dongkuk Steel in 1991 and another agreement with Hyundai Hysco in 2000.
History of NKK
Nihon Kokan Co., Ltd. (NKK), was established in 1912 with a steel pipes plant in Kawasaki, Kanagawa, on Tokyo Bay, in 1912 by Asano zaibatsu. After the Second World War, the plant was re-established there in 1946. In 1968, the steel making facilities of Kawasaki, Tsurumi and Mizue were integrated into Keihin Iron Works.
NKK opened Fukuyama Iron Works in Fukuyama, Hiroshima, in 1965. In 1976, it expanded its Keihin Iron Works to Ogishishima, a newly reclaimed island in Tokyo Bay, with a blast furnace, immediately followed by a converter, a billet/bloom/slab rolling mill and a plate rolling mill. In 1979, a second blast furnace and a hot rolling mill were added.
NKK acquired 50% of National Steel in 1990, but sold this American company to U.S. Steel in 2002.
Major plant locations
The steel production sites of JFE Steel, a JFE Holding subsidiary, are organized into two regions, East Japan and West Japan.
East production sites
There are two major steel works in the East Japan Production Sites (JFEスチール東日本製鉄所):
Keihin Steel Works
After the Second World War, the plant was re-established there in 1946. Its Tsurumi site, Mizue site and the first blast furnace in Mizue were established, respectively, in 1947, 1959 and 1962. In 1968, all these three sites were integrated into Keihin Works (京浜製鉄所). New works in Ogishima (扇島), a newly reclaimed land nearby, started operation in 1976, and the second blast furnace was constructed there in 1978. Currently only one out of two blast furnace are in operation.[2]
Chiba Steel Works
See also
- Nippon Steel
- Japan's Steel Works
External links
- Official site
- History of JFE Steel since 1943.