Ferroalloy Division

Ferroalloys are a very important material for making steel products. The term ferroalloy is not a household term, but ferroalloys are almost always needed when household hardware is manufactured.

Ferroalloys are produced by melting manganese, chromium, silicon, molybdenum and other metals and bonding them with iron. They are used in the refining processes of steel mills, etc. to remove impurities contained in steel or to impart special properties to steel.

In the case of stainless steel, spring steel, piano wire and other special steels, a great many kinds of ferroalloy are added to the steel.

Development Overseas of Our Ferroalloy Business

The growth of our ferroalloy business used to parallel the growth of the Japanese steel industry. But, owing to rising production costs in Japan and the raw materials supply situation worsening year after year in this country with no mineral resources to speak of, we began to move operations overseas in the 1990's.

We aimed to shift production overseas and imported high-quality and low-cost ferroalloys through a combination of our technology with low-priced raw materials and electric power in countries that have abundant mineral resources, such as Brazil, South Africa, Zimbabwe, China, etc.

At present, we are endeavoring to import, on a sustained basis, products of assured quality not only from our overseas operations but also from other general import channels, all the while grasping the levels of local manufacturing techniques and the degrees of quality control performed locally.

To makers of ferroalloys overseas, we also provide technical-cooperation and consulting services for cost reductions and quality improvements.

For manganese nitride, ferroalloy powder and other special alloys that are difficult to manufacture overseas, we maintain home production (at our Takaoka Plant).