Japan’s JFE Steel Corp. has restarted the No. 6 blast furnace at its East Japan Works in Chiba Jan. 13 following the completion of refitting works, the steelmaker said Jan. 16.

          The works, which began in September 2022 till January 2023 and costs about Yen 43 billion ($336.7 million), have left the furnace's volume unchanged at 5,153 cu m.

          "The revamping has helped to stabilize furnace operation by adopting data-science technology to improve the accuracy of both the positioning of material charging and controlling furnace heat," JFE said.

          JFE plans to set up a pilot electric arc furnace over 2024 to 2025 at Chiba. The pilot EAF will help JFE to develop technologies for high efficiency melting and producing high-grade steel via the EAF using scrap and direct reduced iron. Thus, resulting in a large-scale EAF being built over 2027 to 2030.

          JFE expects to produce about 25 million mt of crude steel on a non-consolidated basis for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2023, down from slightly less than 26 million mt projected in August 2022, due to weak demand.

          Domestic demand for steel is expected to fall over January-March 2023, data from the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry showed Dec. 22, forecasting a 4.3% year-on-year fall to 19.98 million mt, while steel exports are expected to decline 7.4% to 6.19 million mt.