Kobe Steel Initiates Transportation Modal Shift

Kobe Steel, Ltd., one of Japan's leading steel manufacturers, has been conducting a five-year demonstration experiment in using ships to transport steel plates to the Chubu Region, the central part of Japan that includes Nagoya city. The experimental project started on October 1, 2002 with the joint cooperation of two transportation service companies, Kobelco Logistics, Ltd., an affiliate company of Kobe Steel, and Isewan Terminal Service, a port transportation company serving mainly the Chubu Region. The demonstration experiment focuses on a modal shift from truck transportation to sea transportation and is certified by Japan's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport in an effort to promote environment-friendly logistic systems. The project is designed to improve transportation efficiency and reduce environmental impacts.

The targeted area for the modal shift covers Aichi and Nagano prefectures in the Chubu Region, where the volume of shipments from Kakogawa Ironworks in Hyogo prefecture in the Kansai Region amounted to 5,700 tons per month in the second half of fiscal 2002. In the demonstration experiment, 3,400 tons of the total monthly shipments will be sent by sea instead of by truck. Through this experiment, Kobe Steels and its partner companies aim to reduce their annual carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from the current 2,069 tons to 1,109 tons, a 46 percent reduction. The targeted reduction in CO2 emissions will amount to 4,800 tons over the five-year experiment period.

For most shipments from Kakogawa Ironworks to the Chubu Region, Kobe Steel formerly used the major highway route, though some shipments were transported by sea. This highway route runs through four big cities, Kobe, Osaka, Kyoto and Nagoya, and is one of the busiest freight routes in Japan. Reducing environmental impacts and minimizing traffic accidents and congestion are critical issues for this stretch of highway.

Kobe Steel and its affiliated companies have also successfully reduced about 26 percent of their annual CO2 emissions by switching fuels at all furnaces in their Kobe Ironworks from crude oil to city gas. In addition, they are implementing environment-conscious management methods aimed at achieving harmony between corporate activities and the environment surrounding their plants, for example, by publishing household environmental scorecards for their employees since October 1998.




Posted: 2004/06/25 09:58:17 AM
Japanese version