Yahata Steel Works

The Yahata Steel Works (八幡製鐵所, Yahata seitetsu-sho, Yawata seitetsu-sho) is a steel mill in Kitakyūshū, Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan. Imperial Steel Works was established in 1896 to meet increasing demand from the nation's burgeoning shipbuilding, railway, construction, and armaments industries.[2] The site chosen was the former town of Yahata, now merged into Kitakyūshū, near coal mines and with easy access to the sea.[2]

Higashida First Blast Furnace, operational in 1901 with a nominal daily output of 160 tons; now a Municipal Cultural Property[1]

History

With the opening of Japan, Western-style reverberatory furnaces had been introduced in a number of areas to replace the native tatara system.[3] In the early Meiji period, blast furnaces were constructed at sites such as Kamaishi in Iwate Prefecture, near deposits of iron.[2][3]

The Higashida First Blast Furnace, designed and tooled by German engineering firm Gute Hoffnungshütte, began operations at Yahata on 5 February 1901.[2] The low quality of output, high ratio of coke consumption to steel produced, and a number of failures led to suspension the following year; all but one of the German advisers were dismissed and the defects remedied by their local replacements.[4][5] These included Kageyoshi Noro (野呂景義), "father of Japanese metallurgy".[2][6][7] The state-owned mill was not profitable in its early years and had to rely on subsidies by the government.[8]

Yahata steel works in the Taisho era

By 1912, 80% of Japan's pig iron production was from Yahata.[7] An integrated mill with coke, iron, and steel facilities, Yahata was also responsible at this time for 80-90% of Japan's steel output.[4][9] Energy efficiency was greatly improved by the conversion from steam to electricity as a power source, resulting in a drop in consumption of coal per ton of steel produced from four tons in 1920 to 1.58 in 1933.[4] Much of the iron ore was from China and Korea.[9]

On May 1, 1916 the dam burst and flooded much of the town and factory killing hundreds. Kuroda Coke Oven (黒田式コークス炉), a furnace recovered by-products through a regenerative burning  apparatus, invented by Kuroda Taizo ( 黒田泰造 1883-1961) in 1918, engineer at the Yahata Works, it was a revolutionary energy-saving oven based on an energy-recycling system. The oven also improved by-product processing and increased coke processing yields. By 1933, the energy efficiency of the eighth coke oven at the Yahata Works was almost equal to that of the most advanced coke oven in Germany. The improvement in the quality of coke was directly reflected in the energy efficiency of iron and steelmaking. In addition, energy recycling techniques such as reuse of the gas generated in the coke oven and blast furnaces were exploited by the system. These efforts helped reduce the energy consumption of the works. The coal consumption per ton of steel production sharply dropped to 1.58 kg in 1933 from 3.7 kg in 1924. Eventually, Kuroda's idea of energy saving and recycling became fundamental for Japanese steel engineers. In 1962, this technological heritage would produce one of the most important innovations, the Basic Oxygen Furnace Waste Gas Cooling and Clearing System, invented at Yawata Steel (a successor of the Yahata Works).

The continuing importance of the Yahata Steel Works to Japan's heavy industry led to Yahata being identified as a target for strategic bombing during the Pacific War, commencing with the Bombing of Yahata in June 1944, by which time the works produced 24% of Japan's rolled steel.[10][11] The works were identified as the target for the second atomic bomb on 9 August 1945; due to cloud cover this was redirected to Nagasaki.[12][13][14]

After a number of expansions and corporate reorganizations, the steel works are now owned by Nippon Steel (formerly the world's largest steel producer[15]) and are important to the export market as a supplier to the car makers of Kyushu.[16][17] In 2014, the Yahata Steel Works joined the UNESCO World Heritage List as one of Sites of Japan's Meiji Industrial Revolution, a serial nomination of sites that played an important part in the industrialization of Japan in the Bakumatsu and Meiji periods.[18][19]

See also

References
  1. 東田第一高炉跡 [Higashida First Blast Furnace] (in Japanese). Kitakyushu City. Retrieved 15 June 2012.
  2. Finn, Dallas (1995). Meiji Revisited: the Sites of Victorian Japan. Weatherhill. pp. 128–9. ISBN 0-8348-0288-0.
  3. Shimizu Norikazu (2010). "The Establishment of the State-Owned Yahata Steel Works (1)" (PDF). Journal of Business Economics. Kyushu International University. 16 (2): 109–145.
  4. Iida Ken'ichi. "The Iron and Steel Industry" (PDF). Japan External Trade Organization. pp. 455 ff. Retrieved 15 June 2012.
  5. 1895～1905 (in Japanese). Nippon Steel. Retrieved 12 June 2012.
  6. Wittner, David G (2007), Technology and the Culture of Progress in Meiji Japan, Routledge, p. 158, ISBN 978-0-415-43375-4
  7. Inkster, Ian (2001). Japanese Industrialisation: Historical and Cultural Perspectives. Routledge. p. 66. ISBN 978-0-415-24444-2.
  8. "Global Economic History: A Very Short Introduction | Robert C. Allen | 9780199596652 | Oxford University Press Canada". www.oupcanada.com. p. 124. Retrieved 24 February 2018.
  9. Shimizu Norikazu (2010). "The Establishment of the State-Owned Yahata Steel Works (1)" (PDF). Journal of Business Economics. Kyushu International University. 16 (2): 132–5.
  10. Daniels, Gordon (1982). "Before Hiroshima: The Bombing of Japan 1944-45". History Today. Retrieved 15 June 2012.
  11. "B-29s Against Coke Ovens". CIA. Retrieved 15 June 2012.
  12. Warner, Dennis (28 August 1948). "Nagasaki: Ugly Duckling". The Advocate. Retrieved 15 June 2012.
  13. "Kyushu, Gateway to Japan: A Concise History (Review)". The Japan Society. Retrieved 15 June 2012.
  14. "北九州イノベーションギャラリー｜Kitakyushu Innovation Gallery & Studio [KIGS]". kigs.jp. Retrieved 2 January 2021.
  15. "Steel merger aims for survival". The Japan Times. 17 February 2011. Retrieved 15 June 2012.
  16. "八幡製鉄所 歴史・沿革" [Yahata Steel Works - History]. Nippon Steel. Retrieved 15 June 2012.
  17. 八幡製鉄所概要 [Yahata Steel Works - Overview] (in Japanese). Nippon Steel. Retrieved 15 June 2012.
  18. "The Modern Industrial Heritage Sites in Kyûshû and Yamaguchi". UNESCO. Retrieved 15 June 2012.
  19. "The State-owned Yahata Steel Works". Kyuyama. Retrieved 15 June 2012.

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