[Ferro-Alloys.com]

Japan's JFE Steel is considering cutting its coking coal consumption, as it plans to boost production and use of recycled fuels for steel manufacturing from October 2024.

It aims to build a 60,000 t/yr plastic recycling plant at its Keihin complex in east Japan's Kanagawa prefecture, where upstream processes and hot-rolling operations were permanently shut in September. The company targets to generate 60,000 t/yr of plastic pellets by buying plastic packages and industrial waste and investing Y6.75bn ($45mn), together with JFE group companies, in building the plant.

This may curb JFE Steel's coking coal consumption for steel production by 60,000 t/yr, it said. The company uses around 1.8mn t/yr of coking coal, while consuming 45,000 t/yr of recycled plastics.

JFE Steel also targets to expand the recycling capacity at the planned Keihin plant to a maximum 120,000 t/yr by 2023-31, cutting carbon dioxide emissions by 160,000 t/yr.

It has attempted to optimise operations by focusing more on high value-added products through structural reforms, including the shutdown of its Keihin steel production plant and refitting of its No.6 blast furnace at the Chiba steelworks in Chiba prefecture, to accelerate it policy of "shifting from quantity to quality". argusmedia.com

• [Editor:kangmingfei]