Major steel producers in path of Japanese earthquake
The massive earthquake and tsunami that struck northern Japan Friday afternoon is certain to have affected major steelmakers along Japan’s Pacific coast. The first quake measuring 8.8 on Richter scale struck off Sendai in northern Tohoku and was the largest ever recorded in Japan.
Currently, unconfirmed reports say the coke oven gas plant at JFE Steel’s Chiba works has caught fire – Chiba police are quoted as saying five workers have been injured – but almost certainly many other steelworks fronting Tokyo Bay will have been damaged.
Steel Business Briefing notes that integrated works with raw materials yards on Tokyo Bay – notably Nippon Steel’s Kimitsu works and JFE Steel’s Chiba and Keihin works – will have been affected. In the January 1995 Kobe earthquake, stacker-reclaimers wobbled and in some cases fell at Kobe Steel’s Kakogawa and Kobe works in western Japan, preventing ship unloading, SBB recalls. In that case however, the tsunami was small.
Waterfront scrap storage yards for Tokyo Bay scrap exporters will also have been affected. The tsunami on the Kimitsu side of Tokyo Bay in Chiba reached 4 metres and on the Keihin side the height reached 1.6~2m.
Further north from Tokyo, Sumitomo Metal Industries’ Kashima plant in Ibaragi also has its large raw materials storage yards facing a channel leading to the Pacific that will certainly have been damaged by the tsunami. Also, a quake of magnitude 7.4 hit Ibaragi soon after the Sendai shock.
Structural damage to the steelworks themselves is likely.
Sendai city itself hosts works belonging to mini mills JFE Bars & Shapes and Itoh Steel. News of damage to Sendai city is limited though the city is apparently devastated and for these works to have survived unscathed seems unlikely.
Also in danger will have been the wire rod and bars mills at Nippon Steel’s Kamaishi works in northern Tohoku (north of Sendai) and Tokyo Tekko’s Hachinohe works in Aomori. Nippon Steel’s Muroran on Hokkaido’s southern shore (which hosts facilities belonging to a Nippon Steel-Mitsubishi Steel joint venture) will also have been at risk.
None of the companies has so far commented.
The massive earthquake and tsunami that struck northern Japan Friday afternoon is certain to have affected major steelmakers along Japan’s Pacific coast. The first quake measuring 8.8 on Richter scale struck off Sendai in northern Tohoku and was the largest ever recorded in Japan.
Currently, unconfirmed reports say the coke oven gas plant at JFE Steel’s Chiba works has caught fire – Chiba police are quoted as saying five workers have been injured – but almost certainly many other steelworks fronting Tokyo Bay will have been damaged.
Steel Business Briefing notes that integrated works with raw materials yards on Tokyo Bay – notably Nippon Steel’s Kimitsu works and JFE Steel’s Chiba and Keihin works – will have been affected. In the January 1995 Kobe earthquake, stacker-reclaimers wobbled and in some cases fell at Kobe Steel’s Kakogawa and Kobe works in western Japan, preventing ship unloading, SBB recalls. In that case however, the tsunami was small.
Waterfront scrap storage yards for Tokyo Bay scrap exporters will also have been affected. The tsunami on the Kimitsu side of Tokyo Bay in Chiba reached 4 metres and on the Keihin side the height reached 1.6~2m.
Further north from Tokyo, Sumitomo Metal Industries’ Kashima plant in Ibaragi also has its large raw materials storage yards facing a channel leading to the Pacific that will certainly have been damaged by the tsunami. Also, a quake of magnitude 7.4 hit Ibaragi soon after the Sendai shock.
Structural damage to the steelworks themselves is likely.
Sendai city itself hosts works belonging to mini mills JFE Bars & Shapes and Itoh Steel. News of damage to Sendai city is limited though the city is apparently devastated and for these works to have survived unscathed seems unlikely.
Also in danger will have been the wire rod and bars mills at Nippon Steel’s Kamaishi works in northern Tohoku (north of Sendai) and Tokyo Tekko’s Hachinohe works in Aomori. Nippon Steel’s Muroran on Hokkaido’s southern shore (which hosts facilities belonging to a Nippon Steel-Mitsubishi Steel joint venture) will also have been at risk.
None of the companies has so far commented.
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