March 24: Japan’s JFE Steel Corporation plans to start up a new tinplate line at its Fukuyama works in January 2011. The 17 billion yen (US$190m) investment will add 40,000 tonnes of tinplate production capacity a month.
JFE Holdings was formed in 2002 by the merger of NKK and Kawasaki Steel Corporation. The company has a total crude steel capacity of 30m tonnes, of which around 800,000 tonnes are tin mill products, with three tinplate and three tin-free steel lines in Japan.