Introduction

Japan: A lot of people, very little space

World Demand for Steel

Uses for Steel

Japan After World War II

Japan and the Steel Industry Today

Japan and the Steel Industry Today

Steel Production
750 million tonnes of crude steel are produced worldwide each year. Crude steel is steel that has not yet been made into a product. Japan is one of the world's top steel producers (along with China and the United States). Japan makes 100 million tonnes of crude steel a year and ships it to every continent on the planet. Japan is also the world’s largest producer of stainless steel making almost 4 million tonnes a year.¹⁹

Canadian Coal for Steel Making
How much coal do you think Japan needs to produce this much steel? A lot! Because Japan has such a huge steel industry, it is the largest importer of metallurgical or "coking" coal in the world. This coal is shipped from Canada, the United States, Australia and Russia. Although Japan gets most of its coking coal from Australia it imports almost 11 million tonnes of it from British Columbia each year. That means that close to 50% of British Columbia’s metallurgical coal is sent to Japan.²⁰

"Coal loader at Roberts Bank, 1960's."
Courtesy of The Crow's Nest Pass Coal Company Archives

This shows us how closely we are connected to people around the world. The Japanese depend on the coal mined in Canada, and we depend on the Japanese steel industry to keep many of our jobs in the coal mines going.

Since coal is so important to the Japanese steel industry, let’s see what happens to the coal when it reaches Japan.

How the Japanese use coal to make steel ^21,22
When metallurgical coal from Canada arrives in Japan it is unloaded from ships and transported to steel making factories where it is made into coke. 

To make coke, the Japanese crush or mix the coal and feed it into coke ovens. The coal is then heated to temperatures close to 1000°C. The coal is cooked in the blazing heat for almost 24 hrs. What do you suppose they find after 24hrs? Coke!

"Coal ship, 1960's."
Courtesy of The Crow's Nest Pass Coal Company Archives

As the coal is heated it lets go of all of its volatiles. Volatiles are the parts of the coal that are not made up of carbon. Once all of the non-carbon materials have been removed from the coal, the material that is left over is hard and looks like a sponge, it is what we call coke.

Now that the coal has been turned into coke, it is taken on a conveyor through the steel factory and fed into a blast furnace. Burned in the blast furnace, the coke provides the heat and carbon needed to melt and reduce iron ore. The carbon reduces the iron ore by separating the oxygen from the iron to form carbon dioxide.²³

Diagram of Steel Making Process

As we can see, British Columbia’s coal plays a very important role in the steel making process. As the world demand for steel continues to grow, coal from British Columbia becomes increasingly important to the Japanese steel industry.