JFE to supply steel for the Trans-Adriatic pipeline

The Japanese company JFE has signed a contract for the supply of 78 thousand tons of steel products, including hot-rolled coils, plates and pipes. The company has become one of the major subcontractors of the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) project, which will ensure the supply of Azerbaijani gas to Europe.

JFE signed a contract with a consortium of companies Corinth Pipeworks Pipe Industry S.A. (CPW) and Marubeni-Itochu Steel Inc. (MISI) who are TAP pipe suppliers. Steel products for the JFE project will be manufactured at two factories in Fukuyama and Keihin. The delivery of products is scheduled to be completed by the end of this year.

JFE Holdings, the fifth largest steel producer in the world, also operates in the construction, logistics, engineering and chemical industries. JFE Holdings was formed in 2002 through the merger of Kawasaki Steel Corporation and NKK. JFE has subsidiaries in the USA, China and Brazil.

The pipeline is to be connected at the Turkish-Greek border with the TANAP gas pipeline, which will pass through Greece and Albania, then across the Adriatic Sea to southern Italy. The initial capacity of TAP will reach 10 billion cubic meters with the possibility of further doubling. TANAP is part of the Southern Gas Corridor, which is already under construction in Turkey, which is scheduled to be completed in 2018, and TAP will be completed in 2020. In the same year, as expected, the first gas from Azerbaijan will enter Europe.