Japan Steel Works
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Japan Steel Works headquarters located in Gate City Ohsaki West Tower
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| Public KK | |
| Traded as | : : 5631 : : 5631 Nikkei 225 Component |
| Industry | Industrial machinery |
| Founded | November 1, 1907 |
| Headquarters | Gate City Ohsaki-West Tower, 11-1, Osaki 1-chome, Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo 141-0032, Japan |
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Key people
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Ikuo Sato (CEO and President) |
| Products |
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| Revenue | (¥ 220.65 billion JPY) (FY 2012) |
| (¥ 8.28 billion JPY) (FY 2012) | |
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Number of employees
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4,804 (consolidated) (as of March 2013) |
| Subsidiaries | 31 |
| Website | Official website |
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Footnotes / references |
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Japan Steel Works, Ltd. (株式会社日本製鋼所 Kabushiki Kaisha Nihon Seikōsho?) is a steel manufacturer founded in Muroran, Hokkaidō, Japan in 1907.
Japan Steel Works was set up with investment from British firms Vickers, Armstrong Whitworth and Mitsui. During World War II, they manufactured what was then the world's largest gun barrel to be fitted on the battleship Yamato. 200 workers in their main plant in Muroran were killed in a 1945 attack by Allied Forces.
Japan Steel Works' industrial processes which are used to purify steel are held to high standards. These include the use of argon gas to eliminate impurities, and the addition of manganese, chromium and nickel to make the steel harder.
Japan Steel Works' services are in great demand owing to its role as one of only five manufacturers worldwide of the largest single-piece components of pressure vessels for nuclear reactors at the company's factory, which is located on the island of Hokkaidō. The other manufacturers as of 2010 are two companies in China, one in Russia and one in France. However, Japan Steel Works is the only one that can make cores in a single piece without welds, which reduces risk from radiation leakage. The company has boosted production to 6 units per year from 4 previously of the steel pressure vessel forgings, which contain the nuclear reactor core. It is scheduled to take capacity to 11 by 2013. Due to the production bottleneck, utilities across the world are submitting orders years in advance of any actual need, along with deposits worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Other manufacturers are examining various options, including finding ways to make a similar item using alternate methods, or making the component themselves with welds. However, welds are weak points which can result in reactor leakage.
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