次は原発再稼働だ。
鉄鋼最大手の日本製鉄は、操業を停止していた茨城県鹿嶋市の製鉄所の高炉を19日から再稼働させました。新型コロナウイルスの影響で落ち込んでいた鉄鋼の需要が回復してきたとしています。
Nippon Steel Corporation, the largest steel manufacturer in Japan, restarted the operation of the blast furnace at its steel mill in Kashima City, Ibaraki Prefecture, which had been shut down on March 19. The company claims that demand for steel, which had been depressed by the new coronavirus, is recovering.
A blast furnace is a type of metallurgical furnaceused for smelting to produce industrial metals, generally pig iron, but also others such as lead or copper. Blast refers to the combustion air being "forced" or supplied above atmospheric pressure.[1]
Pig iron is an intermediate product of the iron industry in the production of steel, also known as crude iron, which is obtained by smelting iron ore in a blast furnace. Pig iron has a very high carboncontent, typically 3.8–4.7%,[1] along with silica and other constituents of dross, which makes it very brittle and not useful directly as a material except for limited applications.[2]
