Nippon Steel & Sumitomo proposes five major development initiatives for 2020

Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Co. believes that the following three challenges will be faced in the future: First, changes in the supply and demand structure of steel, including the decline of Japan's domestic population, the rise of trade protectionism, the development of emerging economies to self-sufficiency; and the second is society and industry. Structural changes, including the application of advanced information technology, the transformation of the automotive industry into electric vehicles and autonomous vehicles; the third is sustainable development, which includes reducing greenhouse gas emissions and establishing a recycling society.

Faced with the above challenges, Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Gold's “2020 Mid-term Business Plan” proposes to take advantage of the company's technology, cost and globalization to make the three key areas of automotive, energy resources and infrastructure an important growth point and adopt the following five major Initiatives to improve profitability and sustainability.

Provide materials and solutions

Among the above three key areas, the automotive sector will develop toward lightweight, electric and other new energy vehicles; the demand for corrosion-resistant, high-temperature and high-pressure resistant steel in the energy resources sector is increasing; in the field of infrastructure construction, steel companies must In addition to providing steel, all solutions including materials, applications and processing technologies are also available. In April 2018, Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Co., Ltd. established the Automotive Materials Planning Department, focusing on the application technology of automotive steel. Measures have also been taken to diversify automotive materials, including steel and non-steel materials, such as the merger of Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Chemical and Materials to better meet the demand for integrated materials in industries such as automobiles and batteries.

Enhance and expand global business

At present, Nippon Steel & Sumitomo has established downstream production bases in Asia, North America and Latin America, mainly to meet the needs of three key areas. In China, for example, the company has an annual production capacity of 3.4 million tons of automotive steel plates, 50,000 tons of automotive bars, 50,000 tons of automotive pipes and 2 million crankshafts for vehicles. Traditionally, Nippon Steel & Sumitomo has built processing plants overseas, which import raw materials from Japanese steel mills or local joint ventures. Faced with the self-sufficient development orientation of emerging economies, Nippon Steel & Sumitomo has changed its traditional overseas business model, with production bases ranging from crude steel to final products in these countries. The company's joint acquisition of Essar Steel with ArcelorMittal will be its growth engine in the Indian market.

Strengthen the manufacturing capacity of domestic steel mills

The goal of Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal's domestic steel mills is to continuously improve technology development capabilities, cost competitiveness and productivity.

In terms of technology development, it plans to invest 220 billion yen in 2018-2020, focusing on the following four aspects: First, develop high-performance products and solutions to meet the changing needs of customers, such as electric vehicles and lightweight vehicles. Steel, high corrosion-resistant oil well pipes, etc.; second, reduce carbon dioxide emissions and recycling technologies, such as COURSE50, carbon dioxide capture, storage and utilization technology; third, process innovation, including low-quality raw material utilization technology, maximum utilization of scrap steel; It is the use of advanced information technology and artificial intelligence technology.

In terms of cost reduction, we will update equipment such as coke ovens, improve energy efficiency, improve resource utilization, optimize production units, and reduce costs by 150 billion yen per year.

In terms of productivity, the production network is optimized to maximize capacity utilization. For example, in order to strengthen the supply of ultra-high-strength steel plates, Junjin Plant will build a No. 6 continuous galvanizing line with a capacity of 400,000 tons/year and a strength of up to 1.5GPa. It is planned to be put into operation in 2020, when the No. 4 continuous galvanizing line of Junjin Plant will be completed. Production will be discontinued; at the end of 2018, the No. 5 blast furnace (2700 cubic meters) of Wakayama Plant will be discontinued, and the new No. 2 blast furnace (3700 cubic meters) will be put into operation, and the crude steel production capacity will increase by 500,000 tons/year.

Application of advanced information technology

In the steel production process, the application of advanced information technology and solutions, the establishment of NS solution company, artificial intelligence research center, advanced application technology planning department, etc., in April 2018 also launched the intelligent algorithm center, through the use of advanced information technology In order to achieve the safety and competitiveness of the first line of production, the stability of production, the improvement of product quality and the excellence of management. The ultimate goal is to build a virtual factory that uses advanced information technology at each production site to strengthen cooperation between multiple production sites, making operational processes and production systems more uniform and efficient.

Reduce greenhouse gas emissions

The company will continue to promote the implementation of the "three ecosystems" and the development of innovative technologies. The “ecological process” aims to reduce the impact on the environment in the steel production process; “ecological products” provide customers with environmentally friendly products and reduce environmental impact; “ecological solutions” provide environmental technologies. In addition, it will focus on innovative technology development, including COURSE50 project development using hydrogen reduction and carbon dioxide capture, storage and utilization technologies.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              Excerpt from: World Metal Guide