USA: BNSF has taken delivery of JFE Steel's first shipment of 600 tonnes of Super Pearlite Type 3 rail from Japan. In -service tests which were carried out for more than a year in Nebraska and Idaho predict that SP3 will offer a 10% longer life than previous head hardened rail specifications when used on sharply curved freight routes.

SP3 offers increased wear resistance due to an ultra-fine structure obtained through composition control and post-rolling cooling with an advanced heat treatment process which ensures internal as well as surface hardness.

• JFE Steel exported 4000 tonnes of rail to Australia in April. Rio Tinto, JFE's first foreign rail customer outside the USA, will use the rail on its heavy-haul iron ore network in the Pilbara region of western Australia.