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Tenova announced on September 29 that Nippon Steel selected it to supply a Consteel electric arc furnace for the Yawata area of its Kyushu Works in Japan. GE Vernova will provide the Direct Feed power system. The announcement concerns equipment selection and supply; it does not report that the new furnace has been installed or started operation.
Tenova says the furnace will have a 340-tonne heat size and, once installed, will be the world’s most powerful electric arc furnace. Heat size refers to the amount of steel processed in one melt, not annual plant output. The supplier release gives no commissioning schedule or annual production target.
The design is intended to allow high percentages of virgin iron units, which Tenova says are needed for high-quality steel grades. GE Vernova’s Direct Feed system is described by the companies as providing the high-stability power required for the installation. The announcement does not state the eventual mix of scrap and virgin iron inputs.
The Yawata project is part of Nippon Steel’s shift from blast-furnace steelmaking toward electric-arc production. Tenova links the investment to Japan’s Green Transformation Promotion Act and Nippon Steel’s 2050 carbon-neutrality strategy. This describes strategic alignment; it does not establish a quantified emissions reduction from the project.
Implementation still depends on equipment supply, installation and commissioning. The release confirms the supplier selection and planned furnace specification but gives no capital cost, installation timetable, final production mix or measured environmental performance. The 340-tonne figure should therefore be read as the capacity specification of equipment planned for future installation.