JSW optimistic over order book
CORRECTED: Heavy forgings supplier Japan Steel Works (JSW) is expecting overseas orders worth over $640 million and is hopeful forthe longer term.An earlier version of this story had described orders as having been 'received', but WNN has since been notifed of a correction at source and that the figure actually relates to 'expected' orders. The story has been corrected accordingly.
Heavy forgings supplier Japan Steel Works (JSW) is expecting overseas orders worth over $640 million and is hopeful for the longer term.
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| A reheated 600 tonne steel ingot at the Muroran plant (Image: JSW) |
The company has announced its forecast for the current financial year, which runs to the end of March 2012. According to the Japan Atomic Industry Forum's Atoms in Japan, JSW president Ikuo Sato said that orders for the remainder of the fiscal year to date are expected to come from overseas, particularly France and China, and could be worth ¥50 billion (approximately $643 million). In the longer term the company is optimistic that it will continue to receive overseas orders for six or seven large steel products per year, worth around ¥45-50 billion ($579-643 million).
The production of heavy forgings is a potential bottleneck for the construction of new nuclear plants, as only a handful of companies worldwide have presses able to accommodate the 500-600 tonne steel ingots needed to make the largest forgings needed for some of the latest reactor models. JSW is one of them, and has supplied the reactor pressure vessels for both the Areva EPRs currently under construction in Finland and France, as well as components for AP1000 reactors under construction in China and advance orders for components for planned reactors in the USA, UK and China. As well as EPR and AP1000, its order book includes forgings for potential ABWR and ESBWR units.
The company has over recent years undertaken the largest investment program in its 104-year history to enable it to triple its production capacity. A second 14,000 tonne hydraulic forging press commissioned at its Muroran plant in early 2010 can handle 670 tonne ingots, and the plant's presses can now produce twelve reactor vessels and associated components per year. Muroran also manufactures steam generator components, generator and turbine rotor shafts, clad steel plates and turbine casings for nuclear power plants.
Researched and written
by World Nuclear News
