Abstract
In order to develop the steels bearing low environmental burdens as well as high performances, the present situation in Japan has been analyzed from several points of view. The issues related with steel production include 1) potentiality of the domestic contribution to reducing the global amount of CO2 emission and 2) possible recipes in practical process to lower the environmental load with high performance. A sector occupying a huge share in the industry field can reduce the CO2 emission effectively and the steel industry is such the sector. A sophisticated use of thermo-mechanical process in steel production can improve both the environmental and the service performance. By lowering the heating temperature in the thermo-mechanical process, the CO2 emission can be decreased and the yield strength can be increased by ultrafine-grain strengthening.
