Kakogawa Steel Works () is
Kobe Steel, Ltd.'s
ironworks in
Kakogawa, Hyogo,
Japan, established in 1969. It is responsible for about 80 percent of the company's
iron and steel
Ferrous metallurgy is the metallurgy of iron and its alloys. The earliest surviving prehistoric iron artifacts, from the 4th millennium BC in Egypt, were made from meteoritic iron-nickel. It is not known when or where the smelting of iron fro ...
production.
In general
Kakogawa Steel Works started in 1969 in the reclaimed land on the
Inland Sea, in the south of
Kakogawa City, with th
plate mill using the hot
slabs shipped from Kobe Steel Works, its main
ironworks at that time, located in
Kobe City. Iron plates mainly for the shipbuilding industry were important to the company because it is also a large producer of
welding rods
Plastic welding is welding for semi-finished plastic materials, and is described in ISO 472 as a process of uniting softened surfaces of materials, generally with the aid of heat (except solvent welding). Welding of thermoplastics is accomplishe ...
at its
Fujisawa works.
In 1970, a
blast furnace was added in Kakogawa. (Kobe Steel Works stopped its last remaining blast furnace in 2017.) Later, a
hot rolling mill, a
cold rolling mill, and
iron bar/
iron pipes mills were added. It is an "integrated" steel works.
Titanium
Titanium is a chemical element with the Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ti and atomic number 22. Found in nature only as an oxide, it can be reduced to produce a lustrous transition metal with a silver color, low density, and high strength, resista ...
processing mill is also located here, Kobe Steel having handled Titanium since 1954.
History of Titanium Processing in Japan
/ref>
Currently, about 80 percent of Kobe Steel's iron and steel
Ferrous metallurgy is the metallurgy of iron and its alloys. The earliest surviving prehistoric iron artifacts, from the 4th millennium BC in Egypt, were made from meteoritic iron-nickel. It is not known when or where the smelting of iron fro ...
production is done in Kakogawa. Since 2007, only two of the three blast furnaces are in service.
Environmental concern
Since Kakogawa compared to the city 50 years ago is now a big city with population of about 300,000, and has expanded to the coastal areas at the mouth of the Kakogawa River, next to the ironworks, pollution
Pollution is the introduction of contaminants into the natural environment that cause adverse change. Pollution can take the form of any substance (solid, liquid, or gas) or energy (such as radioactivity, heat, sound, or light). Pollutants, the ...
from the material yards of iron ore and coal
Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen.
Coal is formed when ...
has become serious, depending on the direction of the wind. Dust-prevention nets have recently been installed in the neighboring residential area.
Data
*Space: 510 hectares
*Employees: about 2,500
*Annual pig iron production: 6,000,000 tons (the fifth largest in Japan)
Transportation
*Twenty minutes by taxi from West Japan Railway Company 's Kakogawa Station
is a passenger railway station located in the city of Kakogawa, Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan, operated by the West Japan Railway Company (JR West).
Lines
Kakogawa Station is served by the JR San'yō Main Line, and is located 39.1 kilometers from ...
*Ten minutes by taxi from Sanyo Electric Railway
is a Japanese private railway operating company based in western Hyōgo Prefecture. It runs local and express rail service between Himeji and Kobe, and also connects directly with Hanshin Main Line to Osaka.
Although the Hanshin Electric R ...
's Befu Station
*Twenty minutes from Japan National Route 2's Kakogawa Bypass (exit at Kakogawa-Higashi Interchange)
See also
*Kobe Steel
Kobe Steel, Ltd. (株式会社神戸製鋼所, ''Kabushiki gaisha Kōbe Seikō-sho''), is a major Japanese steel manufacturer headquartered in Chūō-ku, Kobe. KOBELCO is the unified brand name of the Kobe Steel Group.
Kobe Steel has the low ...
* Japan's Steel Works
References
{{Reflist
External links
Official site
Iron and steel mills of Japan
Buildings and structures in Hyōgo Prefecture
Companies based in Hyōgo Prefecture
Titanium companies of Japan
Kakogawa, Hyōgo
1969 establishments in Japan