Substance flow analysis of molybdenum associated with iron and steel flow in Japanese economy

Abstract

Substance flow analysis of molybdenum associated with iron and steel flow has been conducted in this study. The demand of molybdenum in iron and steel section reaches approximately 85 % of total molybdenum consumption in Japan. Total demand of special steel products in final commodity is 18.4×10 6t (for domestic: 12.4×106t), and that contains 14.3×103Mo-t (for domestic: 9.6×103Mo-t) of molybdenum in 2004 fy. In addition, crude steel for special steel (23.8×106t) contains 18.5×103Mo-t of molybdenum. Approximately 70% (12.3×103Mo-t) of molybdenum in the crude steel flows into domestic market, and about 45% of that is used for motor vehicles production. Improvement of dismantling technology and standardizing of special steel scrap will help to promote rare metal recycling. © 2007 ISIJ.