OREANDA-NEWS. Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corporation (NSSMC) has established a new company, Nippon Steel & Sumikin Cold Heading Wire (Suzhou) Co., Ltd. (NSch) for the purpose of expansion of the capacity and processing system of Nippon Steel Bar & CH Wire (Suzhou) Co., Ltd., which is a production/sales company for cold heading wire in China. Construction of the new plant was started in July 2014, and operations began.

Nippon Steel Bar & CH Wire (Suzhou) Co., Ltd. was established in 2006 and began operations in 2007. Supported by the growth of automobile production in China, it is now in full operation at a stable pace exceeding 1,000 tons/month.

The new company aims to precisely respond to demand for cold heading wire in China, which is expected to grow in the future, and to further enhance competitiveness in terms of quality, cost, and delivery. To achieve this it will build an integrated plant equipped for pickling, wire drawing, and heat treatment, and will increase production capacity to 42,000 tons/year. In addition, the company is considering introduction in 2016 of wire drawing equipment enabling manufacturing of product diameters up 40 mm in order to respond to the increasing need for local procurement of large diameter steel wire in China.

Cold heading wire is used for important secured part materials such as for automobile bolts and bearing. It is a product requiring strict quality control in terms of materials and dimensional precision, etc. NSSMC has strengthened its development of the highly functional XSTEELIATM product line under the SteeLinCTM business brand, and has a lineup of many unique products in the automotive field. Going forward, NSSMC will respond to a variety of market needs-such as greater product lightness by improving strength, elimination of processing steps at the customer site, and holding down new investment-by combining these product lines with the secondary processing system we are developing worldwide.