news minimills coating conference report ......steel times international – november/december 2013...

STEEL TIMES IN

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November/December 2013 – Vol.37 No.8 – www.steeltimesint.com

NEWS MINIMILLS COATING CONFERENCE REPORT INDEX 2013

STI cover version 1_Layout 1 11/5/13 9:44 AM

NewsNews – World steel consumption forecast for 2013 & 14 2

Statistics & Events – 9 months crude output lead by Asia 8

USA Update – Port Authorities buckle over use of Chinese steel/Tepid recovery/Shale gas 10

Latin America Update – Latin America steel intensity 12

Japan Update – A positively changing economic scene in Japan 14

China Update – Over capacity crisis hits value added steels 16

MinimillsUS minimills moving upstream 19

Off-gas heat recovery for electric arc furnaces 23

How the scrap affects Consteel charging 29

Vacuum pump systems for steel degassing 30

CoatingLCA shows steel utility poles better than wood 34

Hardide Coatings solves hardchrome plating problem/Hardide Coatings to unveil diamonds coating 38

Conference report worldsteel - 47 Sao Paulo 39

History: Sven Rinman (1720-1792) - The father of Swedish mining and metallurgy 46

Book review: The evidence and the secrets of ancient bloomery ironmaking in Norway 46

Index 47

Steel Times International – November/December 2013 – 1

Contents

ISSN 0143-7798

November/December 2013Vol.37/No.8

FEATURE ON THE WEB www.steeltimesint.comMinimills: How changes in scrap mix affect Consteel charging of an EAF

EDITORIAL

EditorTim Smith PhD, CEng, MIMTel: +44 (0) 1737 [email protected]

Production EditorAnnie Baker

SALESInternational Sales ManagerPaul [email protected]: +44 (0) 1737 855116

Area Sales ManagerAnne [email protected]: +44 (0) 1737 855139

Sales DirectorKen [email protected]: +44 (0) 1737 855117

Marketing ExecutiveAnnie O’[email protected]: +44 (0) 1737 855012

Advertisement ProductionMartin [email protected]

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Coating – Page 38 Conference report – Page 39

Front cover imagecourtesy of SMS Siemag.The new 4.2-m mill standwas the centerpiece of themodernisation of NLMKDanSteel’s heavy plate millin Frederiksvaerk,Denmark.

Minimills – 9Minimills – Page 19

November/December 2013 – Vol.37 No.8 – www.steeltimesint.com

NEWS MINIMILLS COATING CONFERENCE REPORT INDEX 2013

contents_Contents_STI_Mar10 11/6/13 8:34 AM Page 3

2 – November/December 2013 – Steel Times International

News in Brief World News www.steeltimesint.com


Oman-Singapore specialty steeljv inaugurated The inauguration of Gulf SpecialtySteel Industries Plant (GSSI) wasrecently celebrated at SoharIndustrial Estate in Oman.GSSI is a joint venture between BHGlobal Marine Ltd (Global SteelIndustries Pte Ltd), Singapore, andTakamul Investment CompanySAOC, Oman.GSSI will have the capacity to pro-duce 60kt/y of galvanized steelwires used in the manufacture ofelectrical cables. These products willbe marketed locally, regionally andinternationally.

China’s export volume up butvalue downCustoms data showed China export-ed 4.92Mt of rolled steel productsin September, and 46.9Mt of steelproducts in the Jan-Sept period, up15% year on year. The average priceof steel exports during the periodamounted to US$827 per tonne,down 13.4% year on year.China will face mounting difficultiesin steel exports, given slow globaleconomic recovery, increased pro-tectionism and frictions in interna-tional trade, Zhang Changfu vicepresident of CISA, warned.According to a report by CISA, slug-gish steel price is the common prob-lem facing global steel makers.Though China’s steel exports in thefirst eight months of this yearincreased from a year earlier, theaverage price of steel exports fellsharply.Source: China Metalse-mail [email protected]

Chinese steelmakers consumeless scrapChina’s consumption of steel scraphas declined in the past two years,but despite this the country is look-ing to change its steelmaking indus-try to a greener one.The average consumption of steelscrap used per tonne crude pro-duced has fallen by 21.7 kg year onyear in January to May, 2013. In2012, China consumed 84Mt ofscrap steel, 7Mt less than in 2011.

North China not meeting environmental standardsOver 70% of steelmakers located inNorthern China were found to beincompliant with pollutant-discharg-ing standards, a Ministry ofEnvironmental Protection (MEP) offi-cial said.The MEP examined 298 steelworksin north China earlier this year, andfound that 70% of them dischargemore pollutants than permitted andsome have no pollution treatmentfacilities installed. Others have installed pollutant-treat-ment facilities but were not operat-ing them at the required level.

Region ASU (Mt) Growth Rates (%)2012 2013(e) 2014(f) 2012 2013(e) 2014(f)

European Union (27) 140 135 138 -9.5 -3.8 2.1

Other Europe 35 37 38 4.3 5.5 4.6

CIS 57 59 61 4.5 3.0 3.5

NAFTA 132 132 136 8.4 0.2 3.2

Central & South America 47 49 51 3.1 2.8 5.0

Africa 27 28 30 7.9 4.3 8.2

Middle East 49 49 53 -1.3 1.3 6.3

Asia & Oceania 943 986 1 016 2.8 4.6 3.0

World 1 430 1 475 1 523 2.0 3.1 3.3

Developed Economies 390 384 390 -1.7 -1.6 1.7

Emerging & Developing Economies 1 040 1 091 1 133 3.4 4.9 3.8

China 660 700 721 2.9 6.0 3.0

BRIC 799 843 871 2.8 5.6 3.3

MENA 63 64 69 2.2 1.7 7.3

World excl. China 770 775 803 1.1 0.7 3.5

World steel consumption forecast for 2013 & 14The World Steel Association(worldsteel) released its ShortRange Outlook (SRO) for appar-ent steel consumption for 2013and 2014 at its annual meetingheld this year in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

According to the forecast madein October and April each year byworldsteel’s Economic Committeeglobal apparent steel use willincrease by 3.1% to 1475Mt in2013 following growth of 2.0% in2012. In 2014, it is forecast thatworld steel demand will grow fur-ther by 3.3% and to reach 1523Mt.

worldsteel EconomicsCommittee chairman, HansJürgen Kerkhoff said: “The keyrisks in the global economy – theeurozone crisis and a hard landingfor the Chinese economy – whichwe identified in our last SROissued in April, have continued tostabilise through the past sixmonths. Our underlying assump-tion remains that the US willresolve its fiscal constraint soon.The correction in the eurozone hasbeen more severe than forecastedin April but the improvement seenrecently is now expected to contin-ue for the rest of 2013. Majoremerging economies, particularlyIndia and Brazil, have not per-formed as hoped mainly due to keystructural issues. These factorshave led to a lower steel demandperformance than predicted acrossthe world, with China being theone exception. Steel demand in2013 is now forecasted to grow in

China by 6.0%. Thus, despite steeldemand growing by only 0.7% inthe rest of the world, total globalsteel demand will grow by 3.1%.

"In 2014, we expect to see con-tinued recovery in global steeldemand with the developedeconomies overall returning topositive growth. At the same timewe expect slower growth in China.With risks within the developedworld receding there is someuncertainty emerging from devel-oping countries due to unresolvedstructural issues, political instabili-ty and volatile financial markets.All in all, despite economic condi-tions for the global steel industryremaining uncertain and challeng-ing, we are forecasting furthergrowth for steel demand in 2014.”

Despite forecasts being down-graded from the April predictionall regions except EU27 areexpected to see some growth.Apparent steel use in the EU isexpected to decline for the secondstraight year in 2013 by -3.8% to134.9Mt after falling by -9.5% in2012. Apparent steel use in Italyand Spain is expected to contractby -8.1% and -4.3% respectivelyand even in Germany, it is expect-ed to fall by -1.6% in 2013. Signsof stabilisation in real steel use inthe second half of 2013 bode wellfor recovery prospects in 2014.However, the pickup in EU27 isexpected to remain weak with steeldemand increasing only by 2.1% in2014 to 137.8Mt.

In China, following a 2.9%increase in 2012, apparent steeluse is expected to grow by 6.0% in2013 to 699.7Mt reflecting theimpact of the government’s stimu-lus measures focused on infra-structure.

However, steel demand in 2014is expected to slow to 3.0% growthas the Chinese government’sefforts to rebalance the economycontinues to restrain investmentactivities.

In India, steel demand is expect-ed to increase by 3.4% to 74.0Mtin 2013 following 2.6% growth in2012 as high inflation and structur-al problems are constraining steelusing sectors’ activities. In 2014,steel demand is expected to growby 5.6% helped by acceleratedattempts to implement structuralreforms.

In the USA, after growth of7.8% in 2012 due to generallystrong steel using sector activity,apparent steel use in 2013 is fore-cast to grow by just 0.7% to96.9Mt. In 2014, steel demand isexpected to increase by 3.0%,aided by the improving globaleconomy and activities in the auto-motive, energy and residential con-struction sectors. For NAFTA as awhole, apparent steel use will growby 0.2% and 3.2% in 2013 and2014 respectively.

The region by region breakdownin terms of growth rates and ton-nage are presented in the tablebelow.

Kobe Steel H1 result flatlineKobe Steel’s (Group) consolidatednet sales for the first half of fiscal2013 increased 30.7bn yen(US$313.9M) compared with thesame period last year to 889.3bn yen($9.09bn). Operating income

increased 48.9bn yen ($500M) com-pared with the same period last yearto 54.4bn yen ($556.2M). Ordinaryincome (also known as pre-tax recur-ring profit) increased 54.1bn yen($553.1M) compared with the same

period last year to 43.1 bn yen.Consolidated segment sales for

Iron & Steel in the first half of fiscal2013 were flat compared with thesame period last year at 389.9bnyen ($3.98bn).

STI news nov_Layout 1 11/6/13 10:52 AM Page 1

Italian headquartered plantmaker,Danieli & C reported the results oftheir financial year to June 2013 ata gathering at their headquarters inButtrio, N Italy on 19 October.

While revenue was down –10%at €2782.3M compared with 2012(€3081.1M), and EBITDA down–8% at €277.5 (€303.0 in 2012),the net worth of the companyincreased 10.4% to €1427.266M.

Addressing a packed meeting ofshareholders and guests,Gianpietro Benedetti, Chairman &CEO said the company had met itstarget in terms of budget and mar-ket share and the investment planembarked on two years ago hadbeen completed. Also, the secondhalf of the year had seen somerecovery in the European market,which had also helped Danieli’ssteelmaking Division, AcciaierieBertoli Safau (ABS), which makesspecial steel long products, toimprove its results.

One of the main investmentshad been the building of a newResearch Centre just across theroad to the main workshops, andthis building was officially openedfollowing the results. Other invest-ments included an expansion ofthe workshops, opening of addi-

tional overseas workshops andengineering offices in India andRussia and a growth in theCompany’s Academy to train jun-ior employees and refresh olderones.

Continuing its expansion byacquisition, Danieli purchasedRiverside in USA during the year acompany specialising in the buildingof scrap fragmentation machinery.

Mr Benedetti also announcedthe Group’s ‘Vision 2018’ strategicinvestment plan which entailsinvestments of €300-350M in eachof its plant building and steelmak-ing segments. At the current count,Danieli has 21 plant building orservice companies covering thecomplete portfolio of integratedand minimill steelmaking and alsoincreasingly the aluminium indus-try. The order backlog currentlyconsists of 34% long products,21% Flat products, 19% SteelMeltshop, 6% steelmaking and20% ‘Others’.

The steelmaking division con-sists of two electric arc specialsteelmaking plants, one nearButtrio and the other in Sisak,Croatia; a cold finishing bars plantnear Buttrio, and a R&D centre inMetz, France as well as sales and

support offices in Germany andSweden.

Steelmaking results were downon 2012 with net revenue at€686.432M, down –23.0% on2011/12 and net profit saw a -69.6% drop to €10.567M.

ABS in Italy produced close to1Mt of steel in FY 2012/13 whilethe Croatia plant has had invest-ments to bring its capacity to 300-350kt/y.

Danieli increased the numbersdirectly employed by 9.0% duringthe year to 10944.


News in BriefWorld Newswww.steeltimesint.com

For expansion of these stories andother news visit. www.steeltimesint.com

Long Luck plans $36M billet &rod millThai longs product producer LongLuck Steel Group plans to open asteel billet mill in mid 2014 in aUS$36M investment.The project has a new strategic part-ner, Asia Pacific Investment House(APIH), a venture capital firm regis-tered in the British Virgin Islands.APIH did not reveal the amount ofits investment.The mill is planned for an industrialestate in Samut Sakhon, and thegroup plans to produce, sell anddistribute steel billets and steel wirerod, with a projected combinedannual production of 380kt.

Kobe and Angang sign jv forautomotive cold-rolled HSS Kobe Steel, Ltd and China’s AngangSteel Company Ltd, a leading sub-sidiary of Anshan Iron & Steel GroupComplex, signed a joint ventureagreement to establish a joint ven-ture in China to produce and selladvanced cold-rolled high-strengthgalvanised steel sheet for automo-biles. The two companies had beenconducting a joint study to explorethe possibility of establishing a jointventure in China. The new company, to be calledKobelco Angang Auto Steel Co, Ltd,will install a continuous annealingline with a production capacity of600kt/y within Angang’s steelworks.Following incorporation proceduresto establish the joint venture, planscall for production to begin in early2016. Total investments are antici-pated to reach 1.75bn yuan(US$28.6M)

Hyundai Steel takes Hysco’s coldrolled businessAiming to optimize the manage-ment efficiency of its steelmakingbusiness, Hyundai Motor Groupdecided to merge Hyundai Steel andthe cold rolled steel sheet division ofHyundai Hysco, officials saidThursday (17 Oct. 2013). The merger is to create a synergyeffect with Hyundai’s recently-com-pleted blast furnace and thus com-plete the group’s integrated steelbusiness blueprint. Last monthKorea’s second-largest steelmakerheld the opening ceremony for itsthird blast furnace in Dangjin, SouthChungcheong Province. The new furnace will produce some12Mt of crude steel per year, amongwhich 4Mt is to produce sheet steelfor premium automobiles ofHyundai Motor and Kia Motors.


Danieli see income down but worth up

Gianpietro Benedetti, Chairman& CEO Danieli & C

EUROFER’s Q4-2013 Economic& Steel Market Outlook providesfurther evidence of the economicrecovery in the EU gaining tractionin the months ahead.

The EU came out of recession inQ2-2013, as GDP posted its firstquarter-on-quarter growth sincemid-2011. The further strengthen-ing in leading indicators in recentmonths suggests that economicgrowth continued in the thirdquarter. While confidence dataappear to allow for a slightly moreoptimistic view on the EU econo-my, the rebound still has to be con-firmed by evidence from harddata.

So far the foreign sectorremained the key driver of growth.Improving domestic conditionssuggest that the recovery will beplaced on a firmer and morebroad-based footing in comingmonths.

Eurofer director-generalGordon Moffat comments: “Weak

sentiment has been one of the fac-tors holding back a recovery in theEU. Companies becoming moreoptimistic bodes well for the steelusing sectors in 2014. EU invest-ment in machinery and equipmentis expected to rise again. However,credit needs to ease as well.Improving borrowing conditionsfor banks, better expectationsregarding economic activity andthe outlook for industry shouldsupport a more pronounced easingin credit conditions in the monthsahead.”

Q2-2013 activity in EU’s steelusing industries improved com-pared with the very weak firstquarter which had been badlyaffected by harsh weather condi-tions and overall weak demandfundamentals. Several steel usingsectors − such as the automotiveindustry − registered better activi-

ty levels than foreseen. The year-on-year decline in output easedsignificantly. This trend is seencontinuing in H2-2013, with evena slight growth pencilled in for Q4.For 2014 a moderate recovery ison the cards, owing to a positivecontribution from investment andprivate consumption in combina-tion with further gains in foreigndemand.

Gordon Moffat commented:“The EU steel market is in a bettershape than it was a year ago: bettereconomic prospects and sentimentlevels, evidence of improving busi-ness conditions in downstreamclient sectors, well managed inven-tories in the supply chain and eas-ing import pressures underpin thescenario of a gradual but cautiousmarket recovery in 2014. We nowexpect steel demand to rise almost3% next year”.

EU steel market : some tailwindat last



World News www.steeltimesint.com

TKS puts Duisburgblast furnace back

into operation


PUBLICATION PUBLICATION

Sponsored by the Spanish basedautomation and water treatmentspecialists, Russula, ‘A History ofIron & Steel − To Commemorate 25years of Russula’ contains 68 arti-cles on the history of iron and steelselected from those published inSteel Times International over thepast 10 years.

The hard-back book commenceswith a time-line outlining the histo-ry of Russula followed by the steelhistory articles. These are groupedinto ‘Personalities’; ‘Regions’;‘Technology’; ‘Warefare’; ‘CivilEngineering’; ‘Commemorative’and Archive. The latter includesbook reviews and a review of theBritish Film Institute archive ofsteel related films.

Commemorative has two arti-cles on postage stamps with thetheme of iron or steelmaking,while Civil Engineering looks atthe use of wrought or cast iron orsteel in construction. Warfare cov-ers guns and armour.

Technology is the largest sectionand covers the greatest time spanfrom bloomery ironmaking toexhibits at the Chicago Exhibitionof 1893.

Personalities is the secondlargest section which looks at someof the pioneers of iron and steelproduction.

Articles relate to many regionsof the world and a section on‘Regions’ includes those pages thatfocus on regional developmentssuch as the first ironworks inCanada, the Iron Trail in Austria,Peter the Great’s establishment ofthe iron industry in Russia and thelate 19 century steel industry ofUSA.

‘A History of Iron & Steel − ToCommemorate 25 years ofRussula’ Edited by T G SmithPublished by Quartz BusinessMedia 76 pages Hardcopy Price£25-00 + P&P. Available fromSteel Times International, QuartzBusiness Media, 20 ClarendonRoad, Redhill, Surrey, RH1 1QX,UK e-mail [email protected] Tel +44(0)1737 855136

A history

of iron & steel

– to commemorate

25 years

of Russula

A History of Iron &Steel − To Commemorate

25 years of Russula

The Association for Iron & SteelTechnology (AIST) will releaseanother volume of ‘The Making,Shaping and Treating of Steel®11th Edition’. This volume on flatproducts is due to publish inDecember.

This edition outlines theprogress made during the past 25years in the scientific and technicalknow-how required for productionof high-quality flat products. TheFlat Products Volume is a compila-tion of international knowledge infour major areas:−Properties, metallurgical design

and applications of flat products;−Rolling theory and metallurgical

aspects of the flat rolling process;

−Designs and performance char-acteristics of various plants pro-ducing flat products and descriptions of the plants’ prin-cipal components.

−Automation and process controlequipment providing desired characteristics of geometrical, mechanical and metallurgical parameters of produced flat products.

The Flat Products Volume isedited by Dr Vladimir B Ginzburg,who began his career in the steelindustry in 1975 as a staff engineerof the Research and DevelopmentDepartment at Wean United Inc.,and became involved in the start-up of both hot and cold rollingmills.

The first edition of the Making,Shaping and Treating of Steel(MSTS) series was distributed in1919 and was studied by salesmenand other non-technical employeesof the Carnegie Steel Co.

Current volumes are:− Ironmaking Volume (published

in 1999).−Steelmaking and Refining

Volume (published in 1998).−Casting Volume (published in

2003).−Flat Products Volume

(published in 2013).−Long Products Volume

(to be published 2014).

Association for Iron & SteelTechnology (AIST) 186 Thorn HillRoad • Warrendale, PA 15086-7528 USA +1.724.814.3000 •Fax: +1.724.814.3001

http://bookstore.aist.org/CatalogResults/tabid/55/searchBy/cata-log/criteria/054052/Default.aspx

The Making, Shapingand Treating of Steel11th Edition, VolumeFlat Products

ThyssenKrupp Steel Europe hasbrought back into operation blastfurnace No9 in Duisburg-Hamborn after a complete relineand replacement of part of thecooling system. The facility in thenorth of Duisburg was taken out ofservice in Spring 2012. The cost ofthe invested was around €38M andis intended to improve the com-petitiveness and viability of thesite.

The restart will enable theplanned reline of blast furnace 2 atDuisburg-Schwelgern next year.How long ThyssenKrupp SteelEurope’s four blast furnaces inDuisburg are operated at techni-cally and economically optimumlevels will depend on how the mar-

ket develops in the future, com-ments Dr Michael Peters, head ofThyssenKrupp Steel Europe’s hotmetal unit.

ThyssenKrupp Steel Europe hasfour blast furnaces in total. Two ofthem are in Duisburg-Hamborn –the now restarted facility and thenewly built blast furnace 8.Conspicuous for its red colourpaint, blast furnace 8 went intooperation in December 2007.These two units together producearound 3.7Mt/y of hot metal peryear. The two blast furnaces 1 and2 in Duisburg-Schwelgern areroughly twice as big as those atDuisburg-Hamborn and togetherhave an output of roughly 7.7Mt/y.

Blast furnace operators inside the rebuilt No 9 blast furnace

Steel sales are yet to recover on thelocal Vietnamese market, despitedomestic steel producers' efforts toboost consumption coincidingwith the start of the building sea-son, according to the VietnamSteel Association (VSA).

The association said steel salesfor construction declined 3.87% inSeptember compared to Augustand 2.29% year-on-year to353.792kt.

Production in September alsofell 9.46% from August and 7.43%against September 2012 to347.780kt.

In the first nine months of theyear, steel production reached3.36Mt, a slim increase of 0.02%against the same period last year,while consumption rose 2.46% to3.38Mt.

The steel inventory reached317.504kt in the first nine monthsof this year, VSA figures showed,

adding the inventory remained at anormal rate. Producers had a steelsemis inventory of 520kt, whichwas expected to meet productiondemand in the coming months.

The selling price of constructionsteel in the north was reduced byVND100000-350000 (US$4.5-to15.75) to VND12.24-12.95M/t(US$580.5 – 614.2) in September,as producers sought to counter lowdemand, according to the Ministryof Industry and Trade.

But the domestic market still sitsprecariously as the building seasonstart, because increased electricityprices have pushed up steel pro-duction costs, making it even moredifficult for suppliers to remaincompetitive.

The association also reportedthat Vietnam’s steel imports in thefirst eight months of 2013 hadsurged 26.22% in volume and11.1% in value to US$4.4bn.

Vietnam steel marketremains stagnant



World News www.steeltimesint.com


A state-of-the-art rolling mill with acapacity of 400kt/y will be built toproduce steel bars for civil con-struction at ArcelorMittal Acindar,Argentina.

The new rolling mill in in SantaFe province will also enableAcindar to optimise production atits special bar quality (SBQ)rolling mill in Villa Constitución,which in future will only manufac-ture products for the automotiveand mining industries.

The project is expected to take18 to 24 months to build, withoperations expected to start in twoyears’ time.

ArcelorMittal Acindar has fiveproduction sites with a combinedannual production capacity of1.7Mt, and employs more than2700 people.

As part of the SGL2015 cost sav-ings programme SGL is to close itsgraphite electrode plant inWiesbaden, Quebec, Canada.These Lachute operations willbegin to wind down at the end ofthe year with expected completionwithin Q1/2014. 110 employeeswill be impacted.

This decision is a result of thecompany’s global realignmentstrategy and cost savings pro-

gramme ‘SGL2015’, whereby theobjective is to sustainably enhanceSGL Group’s competitive positionand simultaneously improve itsprofitability.

The Lachute facility producesgraphite electrodes for electric arcfurnaces but a downturn in theworld market for steel has impact-ed demand for almost 5 years. Theclosure of the Lachute facility witha capacity of approximately 30kt of

graphite electrodes is the first partof a group-wide capacity reductionto sustain SGL’s cost position.SGL Group is committed toensuring that the high quality of itsproducts and services will be main-tained during this transition peri-od.

SGL is writing-down fixedassets in Lachute valued at approx-imately €25M in the third quarter2013.

SGL closes Lachute Canadianelectrode plant

Wuhan Iron & Steel Co Ltd.(Wisco) in the Chinese city ofWuhan has awarded a contract tomodernise the cooling section inthe hot strip rolling mill No 2.

New Power Cooling headers willbe installed, the laminar coolingheaders will be partly replacedwith Turbo Laminar Cooling head-ers and the software cooling modelwill be updated to state of the art.

The higher cooling rates achiev-able will enable Wisco to produceadditional steel grades, in particu-lar for the automotive industry andpipeline construction.

At the same time, the use ofexpensive alloying agents can bereduced thanks to improved stripcooling.

The work has been awarded toSiemens Metals Technologies andwill be completed in February2015.

Wisco updates coolingin HSM No 2

In 1988, 617Mt of steel were pro-duced; today annual production ison track to reach 1.58bnt this year– an increase of 156% or a growthrate of 6.24% a year.

This will be my last issue editingSteel Times International as I retirein November.

I joined the editorial team in1988 as Technical Editor when wepublished two steel journals, SteelTimes aimed primarily at theEuropean steel industry a titlewhich saw its origins as far back as1866 as The Iron & Coal TradesReview, and Steel TimesInternational which commencedpublishing in 1987 to meet theneeds of the readership in anincreasingly global steel industry.In 2001 we merged the two publi-cations as it became evident that,although European steel outputremained a significant force, thevolume of production had movedaway from its industrial birthplacein Europe and many Europeansteel companies had interests out-side of the region, some setting upsteel plants abroad, others seekingmarkets or importantly to see whattheir competitors were doing.

My background is as a metallur-gist and I had worked in the steelindustry – as well as in non-ferrousmetallurgy – so it was with delightthat after a seven year periodworking in the copper fields ofZambia that I was able to take upthe post of Technical Editor of thetwo publications in 1988. Soon, Itook sole responsibility of SteelTimes as Editor and later also ofSteel Times International. Indeed, Ieven had a spell of six years editingour aluminium publication as wellas steel which gave me an interest-ing insight into the two premierengineering materials – in compe-tition in many fields but having to

respond to common productionconstraints such as energy costs,environmental issues and of coursethe growing realisation that thethreat from CO2 emissions washere to stay and had to beaddressed.

It is therefore with a heavy heartthat I now retire from editing SteelTimes International after an associ-ation of 25 years and hand over tomy successor, Matthew Moggridgewho is currently editor ofAluminium International Today.Matthew, having spent most of hisworking life in publishing, hasalready proved himself in the alu-minium industry and I have nodoubt will rapidly acquire a deepknowledge of the steel industry.Matthew assures me he plans tokeep many of the regular featuresin the issue going such as theregional Updates and the Historypage, and indeed I have offeredmy services to him to support himas a freelance if required.

With thanks to all those readerswho have supported our steel pub-lications in the past.

Tim SmithRetiring Editor, Steel Times International

ArcelorMittal Acindarinvest US$100M innew bar mill

A new editor fromJanuaryThe aluminium industry recently

released a study it sponsoredclaiming that aluminium cars andlight trucks impacted the environ-ment less than vehicles made fromsteel over the lifetime of the vehi-cle. The ‘study’ was carried by theOak Ridge National Laboratory. Itwas noted that in the productionphase, aluminium uses more ener-gy than steel, but the reducedweight in the car from aluminiumover time offset the advantages ofsteel.

The Steel Market DevelopmentInstitute, naturally, wanted torespond to the lifecycle study com-paring the two materials. It turnsout that the so-called ‘study’ wasnothing more than a slide presen-tation with no backup. But itseems that not only is the battle formarket share between the twomaterials a heated one, so is thePR battle.

The US Aluminum ExtrudersCouncil, believe that smaller,lighter weight cars will benefit themat the expense of steel. Theybelieve a surge in demand is com-ing that will increase the weight ofextrusions per car to 38 to 39pounds (17.2 – 17.7kg) from13.7lb (6.2kg) last year, with addi-tional growth from the truck sector.

In response, the president of theSteel Market DevelopmentInstitute cited Advanced-HighStrength Steels (AHSS) as thecompetitive answer to aluminium.He noted that AHSS products arein production and in the marketnow and helping auto manufactur-ers meet new federally mandatedrequirements for fuel economy. Inits longstanding programme work-ing with automakers to developnew steels, the goal is to reduceweight, costs and do so withoutrequiring substantial stampingplant or body shop investment,which changing to different mate-rials would require.

Reporting on this in its monthlynewsletter, the American Institutefor International Steel (AIIS) notethat, far from the normal perspec-tive about steel and the auto sec-tor, steel still makes up about thesame percentage of weight of theaverage car it has for a long time.While cars have become lighterand smaller, steel is still the materi-al of choice for the auto sector.

Aluminium’s LCA forautomotive challenged

For expansion of these stories andother news visit. www.steeltimesint.com


DECEMBER

9-11 17th Middle East Iron andSteel ConferenceDubai http://metalbulletin.msgfocus.com/files/amf_euromoney/project_1570/[email protected] Tel +44 (0) 20 7779 8989

FEBRUARY

5-7 4th InternationalConference on Automation &Information Technology in Iron& Steel Making ProcessesRanchi, Indiawww.aitism.in/pdf/aitism_14_first_announcement.pdf

12-13 European Oxide ScaleConference (OXI 2014)London, UKOxide scale formation, control andremoval in high temperature metalsprocessing

16-20 TMS 2014San Diego, USA

MARCH

17-19 20th CRU World SteelConferencePrague, Czech Republic

23-26 CONAC 2014 - Sixth SteelIndustry Monterrey, NL, Mé[email protected], [email protected]

APRIL

7-8 The 1st European SteelTechnology & Application Days(ESTAD) and the 31st JournéesSidérurgiques IntParis, [email protected]

7-10 MetalSteelSaudi 2014Riyadh, Saudi Arabia www.metalsteelsaudi.com/

MAY

5-10 AISTech 2014Indianapolis, Ind, USAwww.AISTech.org

15-17 Metal & SteelCairo, Egyptwww.metalsteeleg.com/

JUNE16-18 The 15th GuangzhouInternational Metal &Metallurgy ExhibitionGuangzhou, [email protected]

www.steeltimesint.com/events For a full listing

Events Diary


www.steeltimesint.com News and Statistics

For a full country by country listing visit: www.worldsteel.org/statistics/crude-steel-production.html

9 months crude output lead by Asia


World crude steel production forthe 65 countries reporting to theWorld Steel Association (world-steel) was 133Mt in September2013, an increase of 6.1% com-pared to September 2012.

Crude steel production for the65 reporting countries was 1186Mtin the first nine months of 2013, anincrease of 2.7% compared to thesame period of 2012.

Asia produced 795.1Mt of crudesteel in the first three quarters of2013, an increase of 5.9% over 9-months 2012.

China was by far the major pro-ducer with an output forSeptember 2013 of 65.4Mt, up11.0% compared to September2012. Elsewhere in Asia, Japanproduced 9.3Mt of crude steel inSeptember, an increase of 5.5%over September 2012. SouthKorea’s crude steel production was5.2Mt in September, down -8.7%on September 2012.

In the first 9-months 2013 EUproduction of crude steel was123.8Mt down -4.2% on the sameperiod 2012.

North America’s crude steelproduction in the first three quar-ters of 2013 was 88.9Mt, adecrease of -4.1% compared to thesame period 2012.

The CIS countries produced81.5Mt of crude steel in the firstnine months down -3.4% on thesame months of 2012.

South America produced34.8Mt of crude steel productionin the first three quarters of 2013,down by -1.2% compared to thesame period of 2012.

Finished steel apparent use inLatin America and the Caribbeanreached 44.9Mt in Jan/Aug 2013,similar to the same period of 2012.Finished steel productionincreased 1% to 37.7Mt.

Between January andSeptember, Latin America pro-duced 42.8Mt of finished, 2%more than the same period 2012.Brazil was the major producermaking 19.9Mt, accounting for46% of the Latin American output.This was followed by Mexico, with11.9Mt (28%). Chile andColombia saw production drops of16% and 12% respectively, com-

paring to same period of 2012.In September 2013, finished

steel regional production reached5.1Mt, 9% more than inSeptember 2012. Argentinaincreased production 17% y-o-yand Mexico by 11%. In contrast,Colombia saw production fall 4%.

During January-September 2013,crude steel production in LatinAmerica reached 49.7Mt in linewith the same period 2012. Brazilcontinues to be the largest regionalproducer at 25.9Mt, even thoughits output decreased 1% y-o-y.

In September 2013, crude steelproduction in Latin America

reached 6Mt, 9% more than inSeptember 2012. This result ismainly due to increased output inin Peru (18%), Argentina (17%),Mexico (13%), Venezuela (12%)and Brazil (6%).Trade BalanceDuring January-August 2013,regional finished steel trade dis-played a deficit of 7.6Mt, slightlylower than the 8.4Mt in the sameperiod 2012.

Mexico had the greatest imbal-ance of -2Mt. Other countries withsignificant deficits were: Colombia(-1.2Mt), Peru (-1Mt) and Chile (-937kt).

Latin America steel remain stable Jan to Aug

UK’s Iron & Steel StatisticsBureau (ISSB) recently published‘Annual Statistics 2012’ whichdetails UK’s steel and iron produc-tion and import / export trade byproduct, volume and price, as wellas raw materials and energy use.

The 47 page A4 softback con-tains 35 Tables generally with databack dated, as far back as 1987 inits general summary, but in sometables by no more than five years.

The general summary tells usthat ore production in UK ceasedin 1992, a year when just 28kt ofdomestic ore was produced and17.54Mt imported. Crude steelproduction that year was 16.05Mtof which 3.959Mt (24.6%) wasmade by the electric arc route(EAF).

In contrast, in 2012, 10.51Mt ofore was imported to make9.579Mt of crude steel of which2.054Mt was by the EAF (21.4%).

Energy consumption is given interms of coal, coke, process gas,natural gas & oil consumption withan estimated energy equivalent oftotal consumption calculated. This

indicates a fall in UK’s total energyconsumption in steel production of31.76% since 2007 with consump-tion in 2012 being 177.4 thousandterajoules or 50802 GWh, but alsoreveals a 2.6% increase in energyconsumption per tonne crude steelproduced in 2012. The reason forthis is the efficiency of productionfalls as output is reduced. In 2007,14.392Mt of crude steel weremade compared with 9.579Mt in2009. The data presented allowsuch analysis to be made althoughthis is not underlined in the report.

On trade, Direct and Indirectimports of steel are reported.Direct imports in 2012 were5.6961Mt valued at £3.7576bn cifor averaging £659.7/t of which89.8% came from Europe withGermany being the largest source(872.3kt), followed by Benelux(700.6kt), Netherlands (650.1kt),Spain (556.2kt) and Russia(468.0kt). Outside Europe,imports from China predominatedat 240kt but accounting for just0.42% of the total. Of totalimports, Tube & Pipe were the

main product accounting for12.4% by volume or 20.8% byvalue.

Total steel product exportsamounted to 6.184Mt valued at£4.611bn fob averaging £745.6 pertonne. This made UK a net volumeexporter by 488kt in 2012 and anet value gain of £853.4M. Europewas the main destination ofexports taking 61.6% and coatedsheet and plate were the mainproduct exported.

Indirect imports of steel in 2012via steel intensive goods amountedto 9.423Mt of which motor vehi-cles accounted for 41.8%, metalgoods 21.7%, Plant & Machinery12.4% and Electrical goods,10.7%. Europe was the mainsource of indirect imports account-ing for 83.9% and China 16.9%.

‘United Kingdom Iron & SteelIndustry Annual Statistics 2012’Price £230 incl P&P, Availablefrom ISSB Ltd, 1 Carlton HouseTerrace, London SW1Y 5AF Tel+44 (0) 20 7343 3900 [email protected] webwww.issb.co.uk

UK steel statistics for 2012


AS anticipated, trade unions vented their frus-tration over the use of Chinese steel for build-ing and/or modernising bridges in the twinstates of New York and New Jersey, forcing offi-cials of the Port Authorities of New York andNew Jersey and other agencies involved intransportation to meet steel industry and tradeunion representatives in an effort to assuagetempers and resolve the cul-de-sac in regard tothe use of foreign steel, notably of Chinese ori-gin, in large public projects.

The US steel industry complained thatimported steel, given preference over domesticsteel, was hurting its business. The US steelindustry, supported by its workers, has beencomplaining about the use of foreign steel inpublic projects which, they reminded, shouldbe implemented in accordance with the ‘buy-America’ policy. Representatives of the US steelindustry harped on the note that the public sec-tor was ‘obliged’ to buy American steel; theycalled for a level-playing field, and pointed outthat the Chinese steel used in public projects inthe United States had been produced at an‘unfair advantage’ over US steel manufacturers,and cited low wages, state subsidies and, gener-ally, lax standards which gave a competitiveedge to the Chinese.

Senior officials of the United Steel Workers’Union, the Port Authority, the Mass TransportAuthority, the Alliance for AmericanManufacturing, and, from New York, represen-tatives from Governor Andrew Cuomo’s officeattended a recent meeting aimed at defusingtensions and contributing to what one steelcompany executive described in a private con-versation with Steel Times International as the“proper business environment”.

A representative of the USWU categoricallyrejected the idea of public projects funded withtoll-fees and taxpayer’s money being allowed to

use Chinese steel produced at an unfair advan-tage. The MTA had faced sharp criticism in thepast for deploying Chinese steel in a projectthat entailed replacing the deck in a Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, New York.

The PANYNJ had also been criticised for itsplans to use Chinese steel for a project connect-ed with the Bayonne Bridge, New Jersey, con-sidered to be the fourth longest steel bridge inthe world, though the company which wasgiven the contract has decided to now go forItalian steel.

As of writing this Update, there were signsthat both agencies involved in placing the con-tracts would now pay heed to the sensitivities ofthe steel industry; indeed, the PANYNJ, whichis embarking on a major project worth some$1.5bn entailing the replacement of theGoethals Bridge, is expected to insert a ‘BuyAmerican’ clause in the contract for work onthe bridge. Thus, contractors entrusted with theproject will be required to guarantee thatdomestically-produced materials will be usedfor its execution. The PANYNJ, which profess-es to help in the overall economic growth andjob creation, has been reinforcing its commit-ment to both these objectives.

In a statement released after the meeting,Scott Paul, who heads the Alliance forAmerican Manufacturing, characterised theexchange between the various sides as a “con-structive dialogue” but added that his alliancewould closely monitor all major bridge and pub-lic works nationwide.

The workers who were present at a rallyorganized a few months back by New JerseyGovernor Chris Christie, who had promised tocreate new jobs and preserve existing ones, thistoo bemoaned the use of Chinese structuralsteel in the construction of the new, higherBayonne Bridge roadway. Gary Hubbard, the

firebrand spokesman of the USWU, criticisedthe PANYNJ and other agencies for compellingUS steel manufacturers and workers to com-pete with state-subsidized Chinese steelmakers.Hubbard said that “if we don’t support our ownsteel industry, it’ll disappear”.

In a joint chorus, the trade union and USsteel industry representatives have been com-plaining that steel manufacturing is already dis-appearing from New Jersey which has only afew ‘handful of operations’ left.

New York’s Metropolitan TransportAuthority was sharply criticised for allowing theuse of lightweight Chinese steel plates for theVerrazano-Narrows Bridge; the MTA says thatthe lightweight steel plates are not produced inthe United States. China-made entire sectionsof the span which were shipped to Californiafor assembly and used in the state’s $ 6.3bn SanFrancisco-Oakland Bay Bridge.

But US companies say that the domesticsteel industry can supply large public projects,and warn that the domestic industry will disap-pear if contracts continue to be given to bidderswho use low-cost Chinese steel and ignore thelong-term implications of such action on theUS steel industry. The opponents maintain thatdue diligence was not carried out to look forAmerican producers and fabricators.

There are also concerns about the quality ofsteel products manufactured in China whichhas emerged as the world’s largest steel produc-er with an annual production in 2012 of 716Mt,a volume that is over eight times that producedin the United States.

According to John Wisniewski, a local assem-blyman, there were quality control problemswith Chinese products. Perceptions such asthose of Wisniewski are further hardened by astaple of local and international media reportsabout the quality of Chinese steel products.�


USA Update

Port Authorities buckle over use of Chinese steel


*STI New York correspondent

By Manik Mehta, New York*

THE exploitation of shale gas is expected togive a strong impetus to the steel industry. At arecent Consumer Energy Alliance’s Energy andManufacturing, participants were highlightingthe ‘new opportunities’ provided by natural gasto the domestic steel industry.

According to Chris Masciantonio, co-chair-man of the PA Steel Alliance and general man-ager for government affairs at United StatesSteel Corp, natural gas is helping US SteelCorp; furthermore, the company had added5600 workers since 2010, with 1100 jobs creat-ed in Pennsylvania – one of the major centres ofshale gas.

Cheap natural gas has helped keep down pro-duction costs, while pipeline development hasled to greater demand for the company’s tubularproducts. According to American Iron and SteelInstitute, about 20% of production costs for aton of steel were accounted by energy costs.Thus, lowering the costs would considerablystrengthen the US steel industry’s viability. �

WHILE the steel industry made gains thanks tothe strength of American automobile manufac-turers, which has generated demand for steel,and also the rising demand for steel pipes andtubes, countering this is rising price of iron-oreand other costs attributed to trade union con-tracts, coupled with the oversupply, haveadversely affected prices. Thus, it is not surpris-ing that many in the steel industry gnash theirteeth when they hear the word ‘China’ which,they say, is causing the rising imports and over-production and supply. In fact, China is onlyaround 8th in the league of steel exporters tothe USA, well behind Canada, EU, Mexico andothers.

Another factor that kept the US steel indus-try on tenterhooks was the government shut-down and threatened default. While the defaultwas averted at the last minute, the extent of theimpact of the government shutdown on thesteel industry could not be assessed at the time

of going to press, but New York based analystssay that the steel industry treads on a thin linebetween profit and loss, and the shutdown“must have badly hurt the industry”.

Thomas Gibson, CEO of the American Ironand Steel Institute (AISI), has been saying inmedia interviews that the government shut-down was indeed worrying the domestic steelindustry, adding that the “expectation is thatwe’ll continue with tepid but real recovery, solong as the government doesn’t throw a ‘mon-key-wrench’ (into it)”.

The steel industry kept its finger crosseduntil October 16 – the day before the October17 deadline – when both the government andthe Republicans had mellowed their tone andwere slowly crawling towards some kind anagreement that would stave off the defaultwhich would be disastrous not only for the USeconomy but also, particularly, for the steelindustry. �

Tepid recovery Shale gas

USA_Layout 1 11/4/13 12:13 PM Page 1

intensity data in its annual statistical yearbooks.Here, the baseline was adjusted in some yearsmaking it impossible to compare sets. Forinstance, in the 1989 yearbook, the US dollarvalue was taken as the average during 1980.The respective figures for yearbooks 1993 and1999 were a US$ constant of 1985 and 1995respectively. Thus, this information cannot becorrelated. In the case of the MDIC analysis, alldata refers to a US$ constant in 2005, calculat-ed in terms of a purchasing power parity (PPP),the values being extracted from the WorldBank’s database.

EvidenceFollowing this methodology, it is time to exam-ine the data properly. Fig 1 shows the positiverelationship between GDP per capita and steeldemand per capita, which is quite intuitive. Inthe case of the value of 10000 GPD per capita,in the past two decades, it might be expected tosee a steel consumption per capita of roughly160kg per inhabitant.

If national income doubles to 20 000 GDPper capita, the respective steel demand percapita would be equivalent to 300kg and for30000 per capita, steel consumption per capitashould achieve 410kg.

But the reality is that the effective evolutionof demand for each individual country oftendoes not follow the world average trajectory.Fig 1 shows that South Korea, for example, hasa very peculiar trend, as its performance is wellabove that of the world line. This is a result ofits large amount of indirect steel exports in theform of steel intensive manufactured goodssuch as ships, automobiles etc. China shows adifferent inclination from the other countries,its curve rising rapidly and well above the aver-age global gradient. Both the USA and Russia,despite having very different per capita incomesshow a convex line, passing through a maxi-mum, a trend that it generally expected. ForJapan, on the other hand, a concave curve isexperienced with a minimum around 30 000per capita PPP, which may be associated with itsextended period of recession and stagnation.India is an exception to these deviations from


LA Update

Latin American steel intensity

*Professor in Economics, Federal University of Uberlândia, Brazil. email [email protected]


Careful analysis by the Brazilian Ministry of Development to compare steel intensity values in Latin American countries with theworld trend has revealed that with the exception of Mexico, all the major Latin American countries lie below the world averageline and are likely to deviate further from it. By Germano Mendes de Paula*

STEEL intensity is an interesting concept thatshows the amount of steel used per unit of grossdomestic product (GDP). It reflects the globaldemand for steel products, as opposed to cycli-cal consumption. Therefore, it can be employedas a reference for medium and long-term plan-ning. The goal of this article is to investigatesteel intensity in the world, in general, and thatin Latin America, in particular.

Concept and hurdlesThe data that underpins this article was kindlysupplied by the Brazilian Ministry ofDevelopment, Industry and International Trade(MDIC), which recently engaged in an in-depthdiscussion about the lack of dynamism regard-ing steel consumption in Brazil. One of its maincontributions to this debate was an internation-al comparison regarding steel intensity, which isdescribed in this article.

It can be argued that there are three mainhurdles to overcome in steel intensity studies.First, when making comparisons with othercountries, it is quite common that only data fora few countries, and usually mainly the majordeveloped countries and BRIC nations, havebeen investigated. Consequently, this exercise isbiased. However, in the case of MDIC, a largesample was organised reviewing 104 countries.

Second, some studies pay attention only toexceptional periods to show, for example, inwhich years and under what conditions of GDPper capita, steel consumption per capitareached its peak. Therefore, this type of analy-sis frequently chooses some historical events toillustrate what may be expected to be seen inothers countries sometime in the future.Obviously, the current debate is about Chinaand, to a lesser extent, India. MDIC collected along track of data from 1992 to 2011 to reviewperformance over a 20 year period for eachindividual country, using information obtainedfrom the World Steel Association (worldsteel)and the World Bank.

Thirdly, occasionally the data is available, butbased on different patterns. The predecessororganisation of worldsteel – the InternationalIron and Steel Institute – used to publish steel

the world average line tracking it almost exact-ly so far.

Fig 2 is most important for Latin Americancountries as it shows their positions in relationto the world average line. This indicates anunsatisfactory outcome in that Mexico is theonly country that was able to climb above theworld curve. For the remaining countries, theconclusion is that despite the pre-2008/9 inter-national bonanza – which boosted commodityprices in the years immediately before the glob-al financial crisis, they were unable to changetheir long-term trend. This was the case forBrazil, despite the rapid increase in the price ofore exported, Argentina (with data limited to2006), Chile, Colombia, Peru and Venezuela.

For the two Latin American countries withthe highest incomes plotted in Fig 2, Chile andMexico, the difference between the trajectoriesof their steel intensity lines is marked. Amongthe nations with intermediate incomes, Brazilperformed better than Venezuela and Argentinaduring the period measured. For the two coun-tries with the lowest incomes, Peru andColombia, it is surprisingly how marked is thedistinction between them.

For Colombia, it is disappointing that it hasalready experienced a strong convex curve withpercapita consumption passing through a maxi-mum despite having a relatively low-income percapita. Thus the analysis of steel intensity inLatin America’s major countries during theperiod 1992-2011 is a negative one, with theexception of Mexico. This result is even morefrustrating when it is taken into account thatthe current international macroeconomic per-spectives conditions are now worse than theywere a few years ago. Unless these nationsengage in structural changes in terms of macro-economic and industrial policies, it is inevitablethat steel intensity in Latin America – or atleast in the countries examined in the report –will continue below the world line and evenincrease their deviation from it.

An improvement on per capita income is anecessary condition to prevent this, but itseems to be insufficient to change the trend onits own.

Fig 2 GDP per capita and steel consumption per capita in LatinAmerica 1992-2011

Steel consumption per capita (kg/inhabitant) Steel consumption per capita (kg/inhabitant)1.200

1.000

800

600

400

200

00 5.000

China

South Korea

JapanGermany

PeruBrazil

Mexico

World

ChileVenezuela

Argentina

Colombia

USA

World

India

Russia

10.000 15.000 20.000 25.000GDP per capita PPP (constant 2005 US$) GDP per capita PPP (constant 2005 US$)

30.000 35.000 40.000

300

250

200

150100

50

00 2.000 6.000 8.000 12.000 16.000 20.000

Fig 1 GDP per capita and steel consumption per capita for theworld average and selected countries, 1992-2011

LA_Layout 1 11/4/13 12:19 PM Page 1

LATE Saturday night of 7th September andinto the early hours of Sunday morning, manyJapanese people were still awake eagerly await-ing with both expectation and unease for thedecision by the International OlympicCommittee as to which city would host the32nd Olympic Game in 2020. At 5:20amJapanese time the announcement came; thatTokyo had been chosen by the votes of the125th IOC Session held in Buenos Aires,Argentine, ahead of Istanbul and Madrid.

Millions of people watching TVs in theirhomes, and large video screens in sports bars,schools, public theatres and stadiums, eruptedand shared their joy at the announcement withthe Japanese delegation in Buenos Aires headedby Prime Minister, Mr Shinzo Abe. Japan hadmade a remarkable presentation to the IOCmeeting using the theme of ‘DiscoverTomorrow’. Tokyo is expected to organize a‘compact and steady’ Olympiad and ParalympicGames, located mainly in the Bay area of Tokyo.

Mr Yuki Ota, a Japanese fencing Olympic sil-ver medallist who made a presentation at theIOC Session commented, “After theEarthquake everyone in Japan was depressedbut now we have to make a dream come true”.Most Japanese people feel more or less thesame as Mr Ota on this matter.

Tokyo is expected to spend US$ 5-6bn toupgrade and expanding facilities for theGames. The government also intends to hurryto refurbish related infrastructures such as air-ports, roads and the railway system in prepara-tion for hosting the event. It is estimated thataround 10 million people will visit and move

Japan Update

A positively changing economic scene in Japan

*An Independent steel economist, Karuizawa, Japan, e-mail: [email protected]

Item/Year 1964 2012

Population (million people) 97.18 127.51

Yen/US$ 360 99.6

GDP* 29.54 (82) 475.57 (4,775)

GDP per capita** 300 (0.85) 3,720 (37.4)

GDP growth rate (%) 11.2% 2.0%

Increase in CPI (%) 3.9% 0.0%

Car/household (%) 6% 84%

Shinkansen Length 552 km 2,874 km

Nikkei stock average (yen) 1,216 14,200 (2013 Sep)

*: Trillion Yen (billion US$)

**: Thousand Yen (thousand US$)

�16


Table 1 Changes inJapan (1964 vs 2012)

Until a year ago, Japan was struggling to recover from over a decade of deflation, attempting to boost stagnant domesticdemand and with an economy further damaged both by the Lehman bank shock in 2009 and the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011. But since last December when Mr Abe became Prime Minister, the country's economic scene has been changing – adepreciating yen and higher stock prices have boosted people's confidence for further growth with prospects growing followingthe award of the 2020 Olympic Games to Tokyo. By Nobuhisa Iwase*

Item/Period FA2011* FA2012*May June July August

Total (domestic demand) -1.2% -0.2% -2.1% 3.9% 5.3% 4.4%

Construction 2.7% 9.3% 6.2% 7.0% 14.3% 10.5%

Manufacturing total -5.9% -8.0% -8.7% -0.4% -1.4% 3.7%

Automobile -2.7% -3.6% -10.2% -0.8% 1.4% 6.0%

Shipbuilding -11.7% -22.1% -19.5% -18.2% -12.1% -2.3%

Industrial machinery -2.4% -10.3% 6.0% 6.1% 12.0% 12.6

Electrical machinery -8.4% -2.2% -9.9% -10.3% -2.8% -0.2%

Exports (export demand) -8.6% 10.2% 1.3% -0.1% 0.5% 6.6%

*: FA2011 (Fiscal Year) is from April 2011 to March 2012. FA2012 is from April 2012 to March 2013.

One year ago (2012) Present (2013)

GDP Growth (%) -3.5% (Jul-Sep) +3.8% (Apr-Jun)

Increase in CPI* -0.1% (Sep) +0.8% (Aug)

Yen/US$ 77.57 (End of Sep) 97.88 (End of Sep)

Nikkei Stock Price (Yen) 8,870 (End of Sep) 14,455 (End of Sep)

*CPI: Consumer Price Index

Table 2 (above) MajorEconomic Indicators(2012 vs 2013)

Table 3 Orders for ordinary steel products (% change from the previous year)

2013

around the city of Tokyo in July and August2020. Within a radius of 8km from the centralof Tokyo, 28 of the 33 stadium and sport arenasplanned for Tokyo will be located. Almost onemillion people are expected to visit these facili-ties each day requiring that the existing railwaynetwork in the metropolis – which already hasthe world-best reputation, will further bestrengthened.

When Tokyo hosted its first Olympic Gamein 1964, the country was in the midst of a highgrowth period. Construction of the first ‘bullettrain’ Tokaido Shinkansen (the first-ever high-speed train in the world) and a network of met-ropolitan expressways were constructed to pre-pare for the Olympic Games.

This work accelerated the country's overalldevelopment and economic growth. ButJapan’s stage of development and its currentsituation is very different today compared with1964 (Table 1), but Japan is glad for the oppor-tunity to meet the challenge and show itsdynamism for building a much more sophisti-cated and sustainable society – now that it isone of the most advanced counties in the world.

Apart from the tail wind afforded by theOlympic games, after a year in office the per-formance by the new government led by Mr Abehas shown steadfast progress.

Japanese business people and ordinary citi-zens have cautiously but steadily increased theirexpectations for an accelerated economic recov-ery since late 2012, given several policy changesby the new regime.

The country’s economic scene has been chang-ing recently. The real rate of GDP growth in the

April-June quarter of 2013 recorded a goodincrease to +3.8% in annual terms (Table 2). TheNikkei stock average increased to 14000 yenfrom 8870 yen at the end of September 2012,an increase of almost 60%.

The Inflation target set, at 2%, and champi-oned by both the Government and the CentralBank of Japan is still an experiment, but duringAugust CPI (consumer price index) recordedan 0.8% increase from the previous year.Currently price increases in the country arelargely attributed to the depreciating value ofthe yen, which pushed up the cost of energyand commodities that Japan heavily depends onas imports, a factor exasperated by the closureof its nuclear power generators. However, high-er prices with revived economic activities andincreased income levels are expected by corpo-rate and individual sectors.

According to the quarterly questionnaire sur-vey conducted by the government, current prof-its by Japanese companies are expected toincrease by 12.6% in the fiscal year (FA) 2013compared to the same period in FA2012. Large-scale companies, particularly export-orientedmanufacturers, have much more optimisticviews that their profits will increase by 17.1%.

The government has also increased its publicspending to rebuild infrastructure and housingin the Tohoku area in the North-East of Japan’smain island, Honshu which was badly damagedby the earthquake and tsunami of 11 March2011. As a result, construction activities havegradually increased, which gives a positiveimpact to the Japanese steel market. Orders forcarbon steel products from the construction

sector in Japan, which had long been stagnant,have shown strong upward moves since late2011. In July this year, it showed a high growthof +14.3% from the same month in 2012(Table 3).

While it is outside the scope of the Olympicprojects, the Central Japan Railway company isexpected to start construction of the first-ever‘Linear-motor Shinkansen’ (bullet train) from2014 to 2015 with the aim of completing the5.4 trillion yen (US$54bn) part of the projectbetween Tokyo and Nagoya by 2027. This willreduce the journey time from the current 100minutes (171km/h) to only 40 minutes over adistance of 286km, an average speed of430km/h (257mph).

This project will also boost steel demand inthe Japanese construction sector.Manufacturing sectors that were also badlyaffected by the Lehman shock in 2009 nowshow some positive signs in steel orders, partic-ularly for industrial machinery.


Japan_Layout 1 11/6/13 8:37 AM Page 1

INCREASINGLY, companies have been devel-oping higher value added products to meetmarket demand. This is resulting in a moveaway from large scale output, which often leadsto pollution, to production more closely alignedwith demand.

For example, large infrastructure projectshave been undertaken at the river port inWuhan City and Baosteel’s project atZhangjiang to build a new 8.23Mt/y steel proj-ect on the east coast.

Although the Chinese state has tried to keepthese new capacities under control, they stillcould not avoid the old path of blind competi-tion. So just when obsolete capacities are beinggradually closed new plants producing highvalue added products are coming on stream.The steel industry also has to make changes toreduce over capacity in production.

Taking Hebei Province as an example, thelocal provincial government is pushing for this‘industrial upgrade’ and structural adjustment.So steel mills are actively making investments toeliminate small furnaces Therefore, investmentin capacities is increasingly moving from highvolume low value commodity products as in thepast to higher value added output.

Value added under wayAll steel mills pay attention to producing valueadded steel products but the flat economy hasreduced demand for these resulting in thembeing sold at poor prices. In recent years, thecapacities of steel companies to produce valueadded steels such as coated flat products orhigh strength steels has rocketed. For example,prior to 2004, there were only 14 plate millsnation wide; by 2012, the number climbed to86 mills and the utilization rate has droppedfrom 80% to 59%.

Also if we take the value added products ofmedium and thick steel plate, for example,most large steel mills have built new or expand-ed capacities to make these products. Since thisproduct is only required in specific areas themarket is limited and output is in significantsurplus now. Thus, for steelmakers, althoughhot-rolled plate had been in demand a fewyears back and offered a good high-added valuemarket, this is no longer the case as the supplyand demand balance has changed.

China’s steel industry, although being trans-formed and updated, is on the brink of losses.Statistics from China’s Iron & Steel

Association, shows the industry is struggling, yetcrude steel production from January to July thisyear grew by 7.1% but with an average profit onsales of only 0.23% this year, even worst thanthe meager 2.1% for the same period in 2012.

Some large state owned steel mills put theblame for excess value added capacities on pri-vate companies. The proportion of private millshas risen from 7.7% of total capacity in 2000 to48.4% in 2012. These private mills, they say,account for the major part of the surplus capac-ities. Although some private owners have suf-fered heavy losses this year, they will not chooseto reduce production since most are unwillingto loose market share to a competitor. Based onChina’s development policy for steel, large pro-ducers focus mainly on flat products while smalland medium companies produce long productsfor construction materials. But the present situ-ation tells a completely different story. Althoughtraditional lower value long products for con-struction make only a small profit, they havestable sales. But high value flat products, plateand strip, are in serious surplus now. So theoverall situation should not be considered over-capacity across all sectors of production butrather a structural surplus of flats followingblind development.

New builds – Big scaleIn recent years, the government has put greaterfocus on the updating and expansion of steelfacilities across the country. They guided stateowned steel companies to expand their blastfurnaces and steelmaking converters so as tocatch up with plate and strip mills in developedcountries. Therefore, more large steel millsbegan to get rid of long products and installplate and strip mills instead. Thus, the capaci-ties for flat products has become much greaterthan for long products.

Some provincial governments urged localmills to upgrade their flat rolling mills despitesuch investment being unable to survive with-out support from government finance. Butbecause the market consisting of industriessuch as machinery building have not reached‘take-off ’ level, and high end products couldnot offer a way out easily, the investment inthese costly mills seems to be somewhat blind.

With repeated setting-up of hot-rolling andcold-rolling mills, flat products have droppedinto the trap of having capacity seriously in sur-plus and steel mills are increasingly suffering as

CHINA Update

Over capacity crisis hits value added steels

*STI correspondent in China

Rolled steel 91.93 − 26.70 −

Rebar 18.002 19.57 4.079 15.27

Wire Rod 13.317 14.48 4.583 17.16

Wide strip 10.491 11.41 2.303 8.62

Cold Rolled 2.509 2.73 0.645 2.41

Coated strip 0.663 0.72 0.082 0.307

Med plate 3.238 3.52 1.705 6.38

Thick Plate 2.075 2.25 0.665 2.50

Source: China Metals e-mail [email protected]

Product Aug 2013 % Total Oct 2004 % TotalMt Rolled (Mt) Rolled


China’s steel industry has been changing as most steel mills have decided to produce higher value end products, a difference fromthe past when most focused on volume production of crude steel. By Shi Lili*

a consequence of producing high value addedsteels compared to traditional long products.

Market & government repositioningCertain experts hold the opinion that it is crucialto reposition both the market and government inorder to take care of the problem of productionovercapacity in the steel industry. Estimates putthis at around 300Mt. The main obstacle now toeliminate outdated capacities is being unable topractice decisions in a forceful or selective man-ner. To avoid taking the old path of repeated andsurplus capacities producing low value productsthe government must play a positive role. Yetsome steel mills might already build new capaci-ties before undergoing inspection by the author-ities to see if the need is there for such invest-ment. How the government is to supervise suchfrequent builds of large steel plants is crucial forfuture of China’s steel industry.

The most efficient way could be to set up astrict market entrance requirement and an exitmechanism for steel mills. The adjustment ofsteel capacities should take into account andmeet local environmental standards and taxationpolicy so that any environmentally unfriendlyplant or plant with a high energy consumptioncould not survive in the slack market. Local gov-ernments would then have no tax income fromthem.

Green standardisation and a market entrancesystem for steel capacities should be based onnational environmental standards; different lev-els of environmental taxation levied based onenergy saving and reduction of emissions of pol-lutants. And, environmental taxes should accruerevenues for the city or province so that localgovernment will have greater power to eliminateobsolete capacities.

It is also important to set up and improve thetrading platform for steel in China. China needsto build a third party platform to trade large vol-umes of commodity steels for arbitrage so thatmajor steel producers can drop out of the marketat any time. For a long while, mergers and acqui-sitions (M&A) in China’s steel industry havebeen conducted under the government. Butsuch M&As are today mainly chasing afteracquiring an expanded capacity.

Although some redundant capacity has beeneliminated, a greater volume of capacity hasbeen added to replace it. �

�14

This is a leading indicator for plant andequipment expenditure by the corporate sectorfor the future. As a result, orders of carbon steelfor domestic consumption are increasing, atrend which is also expected to continue in themedium-term.

During the 2020 Olympic Games, severalfootball matches are planned to be held in theMiyagi Stadium in Tohoku, an area heavily dam-aged by the earthquake in 2011. Visitors to theOlympic Games from across the world will havethe opportunity to see the rehabilitation of thearea and experience the sophistication of mod-ern Japan which is being revived from the painof the devastation in just seven years from now.

Japan Update

�

Table Comparison of output of selected products as proportion of monthly output 2004 vs 2013 (Mt)


China_Layout 1 11/6/13 8:42 AM Page 1


Minimills

US minimills moving upstream Minimills in the USA are increasingly moving upstream to ensure their raw material supplies, whether this be by acquiring scrapprocessing operations or building plants to provide alternative iron units to blend with scrap to improve final steel quality.By Myra Pinkham*

DRI for minimillNucor is two thirds on its way of executing itslong stated business strategy to control 6 to 7million short tons of the raw materials that ituses in its steelmaking process in order to havebetter control over its raw material costs,according to Katherine T Miller, Nucor’sCharlotte, NC,-based communications manag-er. She notes that a significant part of that strat-egy is the new $750M, 2.5Mt/y, direct reducediron (DRI) plant that Nucor is building in StJames Parish, Louisiana, which is expected tostart up toward the end of this year (recentlydelayed from projections of the end ofSeptember after an ore storage dome collapsedon the site).

Miller says that one thing that has promptedNucor’s move to increase the amount of DRIthat it produces is the trend for steelmaking rawmaterials not only becoming more expensive,but prices are more volatile than they were inthe past. “Scrap steel will remain our primaryraw material, but with it being more vulnerableto price swings and variable quality, DRI givesus a cost effective substitute for scrap. It willalso reduce our need to purchase pig iron,which has long lead times,” she explains.

This is not Nucor’s first foray into alternativeiron units. Following a failed attempt to get intocommercial operation a fluidised bed reactor inTrinidad which had the aim of producing ironcarbide, Nucor reverted to the proven gasbased DRI shaft furnace technology in 2004 byacquiring the DRI modules which had beenbuilt in the USA by Midrex for the formerAmerican Iron Reduction (AIR) company.Nucor dismantled these and shipped them toPoint Lisas in Trinidad where they were upgrad-ed and started production in 2006 under thename ‘Nu-Iron Unlimited’.

“Nucor did a good job upgrading that plant,getting its metallization and carbon rates up sig-nificantly, almost to merchant pig iron levels,”Plummer states. “Nucor is looking to achieve


*STI Correspondent in USA

“IT is an exciting time for US electric arc furnace(EAF) steelmakers,” Thomas A Danjczek, presi-dent of the Steel Manufacturers Association,declares, attributing this not only to the growthof the US minimill sector, but the expansion ofdrilling in the nation’s shale plays, which, in turnhas resulted in lower natural gas cost. “That hasallowed domestic EAF steelmakers to go up thevalue chain by using more alternative iron units,which also lets them use more lower grade scrapand less pig iron in their steels.”

Owning scrap resourcesThis is not a new trend. US EAF steelmakershave to some degree investigated upstreamintegration for some time, starting with theacquisition of ferrous scrap assets. Some EAFsteelmakers, such as Commercial Metals Corpin Irving, Texas, and Schnitzer Steel IndustriesInc, Portland, Oregon, actually started as scrapprocessing companies, observes ChristopherPlummer, managing director of MetalStrategies Inc, West Chester, Pa. Likewise,Gerdau Long Steel North America, Tampa,Florida, has had scrap assets for a while.

The more noticeable push upstream came in2007 when Steel Dynamics acquired scrapprocessor Omnisource Corp, in part to allowthe EAF steelmaker “Unencumbered access toscrap.” That was closely followed in 2008 byNucor Corp’s acquisition of David J Joseph Co,a scrap processor that it previously had a longterm relationship with. The aim was to gaingreater control over scrap supply for its mills.Some other EAF steelmakers have also madesmaller inroads. For example, Timken Co,Canton, Ohio, has operated a scrap recyclingsubsidiary, TSB Metals Recycling LLC, since2009.

“One big misconception is that EAF steel-makers with scrap assets are realising belowmarket scrap metal pricing, as is the case withsome integrated steelmakers that have iron oreassets,” Plummer says. “But that isn’t the case.That would be cannibalisation as it would hurttheir scrap recycling subsidiaries, which rely onoutside steel companies as well as their parentcompany for sales.”

“What they are getting is a guaranteed supplyof scrap,” Plummer says. “As a result they canlower their scrap inventory holding require-ments, therefore resulting in lower costs.”

Even that advantage, however, could beoverstated, says John Anton, director of thesteel service of IHS Global Insight, noting thatwhile such acquisitions have made them some-what less dependent on the tightness of thescrap market, “They can’t build a bigger scrapmine either. There is no more scrap availablethan the steel-containing products that was pro-duced in the past. Scrap will continue to getharder to get.”

“Thank God for cheap natural gas prices,which in turn has resulted in greater ability toproduce alternative iron products,” Antonstressed.

the same quality and performance inLouisiana,” although it is using a different tech-nology – Energiron ZR, a joint venture technol-ogy between Tenova HYL and Danieli asopposed to the Midrex technology at Nu-Iron.

Miller says that it was the cheaper natural gasprices in the United States that has come withincreased drilling in the shale plays that was thekey reason that the steelmaker had decided tolocate its new DRI plant, and potentially moreplants, in Louisiana.

“We are not only interested in gaining greatercontrol over our raw material costs, but also ourenergy costs. In order to gain access to a long-term supply of affordable natural gas for ourLouisiana DRI plant and our steel mills, Nucorhas entered into an agreement with Canadiannatural gas producer Encana,” Miller states.

This two-phased agreement involves the sup-ply of natural gas for the next 20 years as well asthe joint development of a number of naturalgas properties in the Western Slope. “Underthis working drilling interest programme withEncana, the natural gas that is produced will besold to offset our exposure to the volatility ofthe price of natural gas consumed by ourLouisiana DRI facility,” Miller explains.

Plummer notes that Nucor’s Louisiana siteactually has room for four DRI modules orthree DRI plants and a blast furnace with acoke battery. In fact, the steelmaker has alreadybeen granted permits for a duplicate plant tothe one that is just about completed and hasalready put in some of the infrastructure forthat second plant.

John J Ferriola, Nucor’s president and chiefexecutive officer, told analysts during a recentearnings conference call that the companywants to wait for the first DRI plant to get upand running before it takes a look at a secondone. He did say that through the Encana dealNucor will have enough natural gas to supply allof its steel mill operations and two DRI facili-ties or alternatively three DRI plants only.

Nucor moved minimills from solely long product producers to include flats by blendingtheir scrap charge with pig iron and DRI and adopting thin slab and strip casting

Pic courtesy Nucor Corp

Nucor Louisiana DRI plant

minimills myra_Layout 1 11/6/13 11:17 AM Page 1


Minimills

Charles Bradford, principal and metals ana-lyst for Bradford Research, New York, says thatwhile Nucor has not ruled out building a blastfurnace on the site, − which had been Nucor’soriginal intention before it changed its mindand decided on DRI plants − he does notbelieve that it would make sense to do so.“They wouldn’t have access to coal or iron orein Louisiana. I think that DRI makes moresense there.

Even a second DRI plant makes less eco-nomic sense than the first, he says, noting thatthe steelmaker will have to play the market foriron ore unless it enters into an iron ore ventureas well. Also, while the first plant will more orless offset the pig iron that it imports fromBrazil, a second DRI plant would not have thesame advantage.

“They have a lot of options,” notes LynnLupori, managing consultant with HatchAssociates, Pittsburgh. “As they are so far aheadof the pack with DRI, it is possible they couldgo ahead with other forms of iron units.

Other EAF steelmakers are consideringbuilding DRI facilities as well. In fact, Antonsays, there is reportedly 15 – 20M stons of DRIcapacity being looked at in the United States by2020. “Some will never happen, but others willgo forward,” he says.

Spokespersons for United States Steel Corp,Pittsburgh, and Republic Steel, Canton, Ohio,say that the two companies are jointly conduct-ing a feasibility study that could result in USSteel building a DRI plant in Lorain, Ohio, aspart of the supply agreement recently inked bythe two neighboring steelmakers relating toRepublic’s new EAF being built in Lorain.

US Steel has already determined that it isfeasible to liberate the silica from its crude oreto produce a DRI-grade pellet, but subsequentevaluation is necessary to determine the techni-cal process requirements and the estimatedcapital investment required to produce suchpellets from its operations. The companies saythat this is still under investigation, but thatthey have no planned timeframe for a decision.

Reportedly North Star Bluescope Steel LLC

is also considering building a DRI facility andSeverstal North America, Dearborn, Mich, hadbeen studying the possibility as well but hassince, at least temporarily, dropped those plansdue to market conditions, a company spokes-woman says. Also, in some of the projects, theDRI produced could be compacted into HBIand fed to blast furnaces to increase their pro-ductivity and lower their CO2 footprint. Midrexhas already started to construct such a 2.0Mmetric tonne plant at Corpus Christi, Texas forAustria’s voestalpine steel which intends to shiphalf the output to supplement its ore feed to itsfurnaces in Austria. For blast furnace applica-tions, lower grade ore can be used for DRI pro-duction since the gangue content is no longercritical as is the case for EAF users of DRI. (SeeSTI October 2013 p13).

Alternatives to gas based DRIFort Wayne, Ind,-based Steel Dynamics is andhas been iron self-sufficient through its MesabiNugget and Iron Dynamics iron nugget produc-tion, Marlene Owen, its director of investorrelations, announced.

Mesabi Nugget, a coal based rotary hearthprocess developed by Midrex’s parent compa-ny, Kobe Steel, which momentarily melts theDRI produced to form a small nugget of ironfrom which the slag can be removed, continuesto make steady progress. Mark Millett, SDI’spresident and chief executive officer, recentlytold analysts this, noting that the restart ofcapacity is going well following a planned out-age in April during which time the facility was


successfully upgraded, and the plant is nowgradually ramping up capacity. “With continuedimprovement in plant availability and operatingrates, production is still expected to reach a30 000 tonnes a monthly rate before the end ofthe year.” That equates to a 400- 425kt annu-alised run rate up from 360kt achieved so far.

Meanwhile SDI’s Iron Dynamics unitachieved a record quarterly production of62500 stons of liquid pig iron in the secondquarter of 2013. The unit produces DRI in acoal based rotary hearth which is then melted ina submerged arc furnace to supply hot metal tothe downstream EAF.

While it remains on the steelmaker’s radarscreen, plans for an iron ore mine to supplyMesabi Nugget have been placed further on thebackburner, especially given its 1.0M ston MesabiResource iron ore tailings 80/20 joint venture,which was established in September 2012, tosupply the iron ore it needs for that facility.

The downside of charging DRI Danjczek, who says that while DRI and otheralternative iron units do offer a number ofadvantages to EAF steelmakers, such as a morepredictable chemistry at a lower capital cost andoperating cost than a blast furnace, there is alsoa down side. It takes more energy to melt it,there is more slag generated and it could resultin higher energy costs, increased refractorycosts, lower yields and reduced productivity.

“We will see EAF steelmakers continue to goafter more iron units,” Danjczek says. But thequestion is if they build their own facilities orbuy merchant metal, go through third partysuppliers or acquire upstream companies.

One question is what impact, if any, this willhave on scrap metal consumption and thereforeprices. Danjczek, however, maintains that theimpact will be limited. “They are alternativeiron units, not scrap substitutes,” he explains,asserting that having more alternative iron unitsavailable will not negatively impact scrap con-sumption. In fact, it could increase it – especial-ly consumption of lower quality grades of scrapwhich can be blended with the high grade DRIto meet tramp element specifications.

Hatch’s Lynne Lupori agrees, noting that ithas a lot to do with cost versus quality. “Youdon’t use DRI instead of scrap unless you arelooking to hit certain residual or quality levels.But changing the input mix could help EAFsteelmakers up the quality of their productwhen needed.

“Minimills have been moving up the productscale, producing some products traditionallyconsidered integrated-only products,” she says.“We are seeing some shifts in the charge mix forthose producers who are looking to go up thequality scale.”

There are, however, reasonable limits,Danjczek admits. “While it is possible for aminimills to make tinplate, it might not be costeffective,” he points out “In certain applicationsother virgin units and processes could berequired.”

Another question is whether some largerEAF steelmakers, such as Nucor and SDI, havelost some of their competitive edge versus inte-grated steelmakers, Plummer says. “To get thatback it is necessary for them to have more own-ership of their raw materials,” especially giventhat about 70% of the operating costs of EAFsteelmakers are tied to raw materials with thenext big chunk being energy costs. “The pro-ducers are seeking to target the biggest coststhat they are able to change,” he says.

Nucor’s $750M DRIplant under construc-tion in Louisiana is thestart of a revival forDRI production in theUSA on the back ofcheap shale gas Piccourtesy Nucor Corp

minimills myra_Layout 1 11/6/13 11:17 AM Page 2


Minimills

Off-gas heat recovery for electric arc furnaces

The recovery of heat from the off-gasducting of an EAF is discussed and twotrials using molten salt heat exchangerswith tubes made of various materials andrun at different temperatures were madeto assess their suitability. Failure of theheat exchanger operating at the moreelevated temperature of 380°C to 400°Coccurred after two months of operationwhile the other operating at 300°C lastedthe four months duration of the test. Thelatter, which also had the advantage ofan erosion shield fitted, showed no lossof tube thickness while the failed heatexchanger showed loss of wall thickness,it is believed primarily due to erosion. By T Steinparzer*, M Haider*; F Zauner**, G Enickl**; M Michele-Naussed*** & A C Horn***

charged electric arc furnace (EAF). The Sankeydiagram shows that about 50% of the necessarymelting energy in an EAF is provided by electricenergy. The major part of the remaining energycomes from a combination of exothermicchemical reactions in the steel bath resultingfrom the oxidation of combustible materials inthe charged scrap, iron and alloying elements,and energy supplied by natural gas burners inthe furnace and the combustion of chargedcoal. Similar Sankey diagrams can be found inRef[1]. Regarding the outlet energy flows themajor part of the energy leaves the system withthe discharged liquid steel and slag. Some ener-gy is also lost to the furnace cooling system andin the sensible heat of the off-gas, the lattercontaining 20-30% of the total energy input.These two energy flows are a focus for heatrecovery. Further losses are caused by radiationduring furnace charging, by air leaking into thefurnace and by the water cooled panels of thefurnace shell. A characteristic temperature andmass flow profile of an electric arc furnace isgiven in Fig 2.

The EAF energy balance in Fig 1 is for a twobasket charged furnace. In minutes 0 to 5 thefirst scrap basket is charged. From minutes 5 to15 the scrap is melted. In minute 20 the secondscrap basket is charged. During minutes 25 to


*Vienna University of Technology - Institute for Energy Systems and Thermodynamics e-mail: [email protected]

**Siemens VAI Metals Technologies GmbH, ***Stahlwerk Thüringen GmbH

THIS paper deals with electric arc furnace off-gas heat recovery and the experimental resultsof a test plant using molten salt heat exchang-ers. State of the art and advanced heat recoveryconcepts for electric arc furnaces are presented.Transient process simulation of the steam gen-erators have been completed. The test plantwas installed inside the existing off-gas systemof the German minimill, Stahlwerk Thüringen.The aim of the test plant was to evaluate tubematerials for heat exchangers and to measurethe influence of hot corrosion and dust settlingon the heat exchanger tubes. First experimentalresults are presented.

Steel production is highly energy intensiveand is a batch processes resulting in energydemand varying in a cyclic manner. As a conse-quence, energy optimisation and efficiencyincrease are important research areas for thesteel industry. The thermal emissions of theelectric arc furnace depend on the input energymix. The Sankey diagram gives an overview ofthe in- and output energy flows. Fig 1 illustratesa Sankey diagram for a typical 120t scrap

50 the whole of the scrap is melted and oxygenas well as coal is blown into the steel bathrespectively to reduce the carbon content andfoam the slag. Finally, from minutes 50 to 55the furnace is tapped by tilting the whole fur-nace to one side.

EAF off-gas heat recovery The dynamics of the electric arc furnaceprocess lead to various challenges for energyrecovery solutions. The heat exchangers have towithstand the temperature transitions of theoff-gas and due to the gas composition, corro-sion is a hazard. Thermal energy storage sys-tems are necessary to provide downstream sys-tems with a constant amount of energy. Off-gasheat recovery concepts based on steam genera-tors and molten salts have been developed andsimulated. In state of the art de-dusting systemsfor steelmaking the off-gas duct is water-cooled. The off-gas heat is lost to the environ-ment via the circulating cooling water and acooling tower.

Heat recovery conceptsThe new approach is to use the waste heat forenergy production. A common solution is toreplace the water-cooled off-gas duct by evapo-rative cooling. For water/steam as primary fluid,

Fig 1 Typical Sankey diagram for a 120t electric arc furnace two-bucket charge

Fig 3 Process flow diagram of the saturated steam system[2]Fig 2 Characteristic off-gas temperature and mass flow profile of a120t electric arc furnace

Electric energyOff gas

Liquid steel

Further losses:energy slag,energy cooling,energy radiation

356 kWh/t

79 kWh/t

120t EAFsteel scrap based

288 kWh/t

131 kWh/t

365 kWh/t

226 kWh/t

Fossil energy

Chemical energybath and scrap

720 kWh/t

1400300x103

250x103

200x103

150x103

100x103

50x103

Off-gas temperature after combustionOff-gas flow after combustion

1200

1000

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pera

ture

[ºC

]

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-gas

flo

w [

Nm

3 /h]

Time [min]

400

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00

010 20 30 40 50 60

Steam drum

Off-gas EV ECO to filter

Deaerator

Feed water pump

Evaporator economiser

Steam accumulators

Bypass

Condenser

Condenserpump

Saturated steamturbine

F

G

LLT

M

M

P

T

minimills siemens_Layout 1 11/6/13 11:18 AM Page 1


Minimills

the off-gas duct has to be designed as a wasteheat boiler. High gas velocities in the inlet ductand high dust loads are design challenges.These challenges have been addressed byappropriate heat exchanger design. A processflow diagram is presented in Fig 3. It shows thewaste heat boiler for steam production in com-bination with Ruths steam buffers to provide adownstream saturated steam turbine for powergeneration with a constant mass flow.Condenser, deaerator and feed-water pump arenecessary components to complete the watersteam cycle. The waste heat boiler is a five passdesign. The first two passes are evaporationcooled membrane wall off-gas ducts. In the fur-ther passes evaporation bundles and an econo-mizer bundle cool the off-gas to 250°C andtherefore increase boiler efficiency. An assistedcirculation system is recommended to ensuresufficient cooling of the heat transfer surface.Hence, a mass flow distribution simulation hasto be performed.

Numerical simulation of heat recoveryFor a waste heat boiler of a five pass design anadequate process simulation with the thermalinput presented in Fig 2 has been performed.Besides determining performance parameterssuch as steam production and power generation,the simulation has to be completed to validatethe water side design of the waste heat boiler.Fig 4(a) shows the steam production of the wasteheat boiler. The amount of steam produced fol-lows the temperature profile of Fig 2 in a more orless similar way. As illustrated in Fig 4(a) the


Fig 4 Simulation results of the waste heat boiler and steam accumulator (a) Steam production (b) Pressure inside steam accumulator

(a) (b)

Fig 5 Approximate estimation of process efficiency as a function ofmedium temperature

Fig 6 Process flow diagram of advanced heat recovery concept formolten salt

40 70 1,75

1,70

1,65

1,60

1,55

1,50

60

50

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20

Steam production boiler [kg/s] Pressure boiler drum [bar]Pressure inside steam accumulator [bar]Inlet pressure steam turbine [bar]Liquid level steam buffer [m]

Steam flow from accumulator [kg/s]

Stea

m m

ass

flow

[kg

/s]

Proc

ess

effic

ienc

y [%

]

Pres

sure

[ba

r]

Liqu

id le

vel [

m]

10

0

0

30

Saturated steam turbineSuperheated steam turbineORC Process

25

20

15

10

5

0

100 200 300 400

1000 1000Time [s]

Maximum process media temperature [°C]

Time [s]2000 20003000 3000

Off-gasECO Filter

Holtmolten

salt tank

Buffer tank

Cold molten

salttank

Feed water pump

Deaertor

Condenser

Steam turbineEvaporator

Superheater

Salt - off-gas

Heat exchangerG

TM

M

M

M

L

(a)

Fig 7 Design of the testing plant (a) Layout of the testing plant

(a) (b)

Fig 8 Test heat exchangers before dismantling(a) Test heat exchanger No 1 (400°C tube temperature) without erosion protection(b) Test heat exchanger No 2 (300°C tube temperature) with erosion protection

Hot gas line Off-gas molten salt heat exchanger

Molten salt air cooler

Molten salttank withcirculationpump


First experiences in a testing plantTo collect reliable data on the corrosive attackof high temperature surfaces in the off-gas andto gain experience in handling molten salt, atest plant was installed in the existing off-gassystem of an electric arc furnace. The test plantwas implemented in the existing water cooledoff-gas system of Stahlwerk Thüringen GmbH,Germany. It was commissioned in April 2012and first experimental results are now available.

The test rig consisted of a molten salt storagetank, a molten salt off-gas heat exchanger, amolten salt air cooler, piping and various con-trol and measurement instruments. The plant isdesigned to ensure drain-ability of the moltensalt. Heat exchanger wall temperatures up to450°C can be investigated. Molten salt as theheat transfer media was selected, since temper-atures up to 550°C are possible without evapo-ration of the fluid. Nevertheless, the resultsregarding off-gas side attack of the heatexchanger gathered with this test plant can beapplied for other heat transfer media, for exam-ple steam. A drawing of the pilot plant is pre-sented in Fig 7.

The core part of the pilot plant is the heatexchanger. The heat exchanger is a U-shapedbundle heat exchanger. The size and design weredetermined for mechanical stability reasons andthe need for drain-ability of the salt. The heatexchanger consists of seven different tube mate-rials. Six tube materials were tested by weldinginto two headers made of another material.

Preliminary results of materialsIn the first sequence the test heat exchangerwas kept at a molten salt temperature between380°C and 400°C. The second test heatexchanger, which used an identical materialcombination as the first, was operated at amolten salt temperature of 300°C. The temper-ature was reduced to investigate the tempera-ture influence on the corrosive phenomena.One change in construction between the twoheat exchangers was that for the second lowertemperature heat exchanger had an erosionprotection shield of high-temperature resistantsheet metal fixed before the headers to reducethe influence of erosion on these.

After operating for two months a leak in thefirst test heat exchanger occurred which lead toa reduction in the level of liquid. This decreasewas detected automatically by the plant andtherefore the heat exchanger test plant was shutdown. Fig 8(a) shows the test heat exchangerafter the leak. The white mass on the heatexchanger is solidified salt which also led toenhanced dust settling on the heat exchanger

steam mass flow from the steam accumulator tothe saturated steam turbine can be held nearlyconstant by the designed controller.

Fig 4(b) shows the sliding pressure inside thesteam accumulator. The sliding pressure insidethe buffer is below the boiler pressure andabove the minimum inlet pressure of the steamturbine for each load point. During the timeinterval 1000sec until 1300sec and more sobetween 2000sec and 3200sec the buffer ischarged and pressure rises.

At this time liquid water is condensed andstored inside the tank. During time interval50min until 16min (cyclic batch process) thebuffer is discharged, therefore the pressuredecreases and the super-heated liquid waterevaporates. If the liquid level inside the steambuffer increases too much, then the liquidwater phase is used to heat the boiler feedwater taken from the condenser. This saveshaving to use valuable saturated steam thatwould otherwise go to the turbine from havingto be used for this purpose.

For the saturated steam turbine a Siemensturbine has been considered. By using such ahighly efficient steam turbine and cooling theoff-gas down to 200°C an overall process effi-ciency of 17% can be achieved.

Advanced Heat Recovery ConceptsThe search for high efficiency heat recoveryleads to increased operating temperatures forthe heat transfer media. Fig 5 illustrates this. Itshows the dependency of the overall processefficiency on maximum media temperature inthe process. The curves for saturated steam,superheated steam and ORC (Organic rankinecycle) turbines differ because of the varyingstage efficiencies of the turbines.

Siemens VAI Metals Technologies and theVienna University of Technology have togetherdeveloped high efficient heat recovery conceptsbased on different heat transfer and storagemedia. The following media have been investi-gated for heat transfer and/or heat storage:− Saturated and superheated steam;− Thermal oils;− Molten salts;− Solid heat storage using high-temperature

concrete or sand; and− Phase change materials.

Simulated results of these concepts havealready been presented partially in Ref[3]. In thispaper only the advanced heat recovery conceptsolely based on molten salt and first operationalexperience with a testing plant are presented.

Molten salt technologyThe advanced molten salt heat recovery con-cept uses molten salt as heat transfer and stor-age media. For this concept ternarynitrite/nitrate molten salt mixtures have beenapplied. Solidification of these liquids starts atapproximately 130°C, whereas operational tem-peratures up to 550°C are possible.

Fig 6 shows the schematic process flow dia-gram of a heat recovery solution based onmolten salt. The molten salt is heated by theEAF off-gas. Since no continuous heat up ofthe salt is possible due to the batch nature ofthe EAF, the molten salt is stored at its averagetemperature in a three tank storage system.

A constant amount of hot molten salt fromthe storage tank is used to evaporate and super-heat steam which is fed to a superheated steamturbine. The remaining energy of the off-gas isused to pre-heat the water for the evaporator.


Minimills


Fig 9 Extrapolated material loss rate (a) Horizontal tubes (position H) (b) Vertical tubes (position V)

(a) (b)

4 10

8

6

4

2

0

3

2

1

0

-1

250 250 300 350 400 450

Material loss horizontal position Material loss vertical position

300 350Temperature [°C] Temperature [°C]

400 450

Mat

eria

l los

s ho

rizo

ntal

tub

es [

mm

/a]

Mat

eria

l los

s at

ver

tica

l tub

es [

mm

/a]

Fig 10 CFD simulation of gas velocity around the heat exchanger(a) Flow profile around second tube row without erosion protection(b) Flow profile around second tube row with erosion protection

(a) (b)



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tubes as it solidified. In this picture the massive erosive and corrosiveattack of the material is evident. The second test heat exchanger wasoperated for four months without any leaks. Fig 8(b) shows the heatexchanger before disassembly. Comparing the two heat exchangers theenhancement of dust settling in test 1 is evident. The material investiga-tions of the heat exchanger tubes, headers and erosion protection weremeasured by the Materials Centre Leoben[4]. The material loss wasmeasured and chemical analysis performed. For each heat exchanger Utube, samples were cut from both the horizontal and vertical section ofthe U and metallographically and chemically analysed.

Fig 9(a) and (b) summarize the results of the material lost from the ver-tical and horizontal sections of the tubes for the two tube wall tempera-tures. The measured data were extrapolated by Siemens VAI on a linearbasis to a period of one year. For the first heat exchanger the material lossaveraged between 2-4mm per year but for the second, lower temperaturetest almost no significant material loss was measured.

The reasons for the loss of material in the higher temperature test aremultiple and it is difficult to distinguish between mechanisms. Basically,there are three influencing factors; corrosion, oxidation and erosion. Aclear difference between the phenomena and therefore the identificationof the proper reason can only be gained once further heat exchangers aretested and their detailed analysis completed. As a preliminary point it canbe said that erosion due to high gas velocities is a key issue, which has tobe considered carefully.

CFD Simulation To perform a fluid flow analysis of the off-gas velocity profile computa-tional fluid dynamics (CFD) are necessary. The commercial CFD-code‘ANSYS Fluent’ was employed. For the simulation of heat exchanger twomeshes of one half of the test heat exchanger and the hot gas line weremodelled. As boundary condition for the stationary simulation the gasvelocity at the inlet of the modelled off-gas cooling section was given amagnitude of 35m/s.

Only the key results of the simulation are presented here. Fig 10(a)shows the gas flow profile around one half of the test heat exchangerwithout erosion protection. The off-gas flows from left to right of themodel. The maximum flow velocity of the gas is found around the heatexchanger header. In this area flow velocity is approximately 50m/s,whereas the flow velocity around the heat exchanger tubes is about30m/s.

The simulation results of the heat exchanger with erosion protection areplotted in Fig 10(b) and show a dramatic reduction in flow velocity. Thevelocity around the erosion protector is again around 50m/s, but the flowvelocity around the heat exchanger tubes is reduced to around 15m/s.Hence, attaching the erosion protection shields leads to a halving of theflow velocity. Therefore erosion was reduced significantly.

OutlookThe development of off-gas heat recovery concepts showed that twochallenges dominate the design of the heat recovery system. The firstresults from the batch process itself. The fluctuating thermal emissionsmake thermal energy storage and a proper part-load behaviour of theheat exchanger necessary. The second challenge is a consequence of theoff-gas composition, the dust load and the dynamic oscillation of off-gasside temperatures. This leads to high material stress and makes materialtests necessary.

AcknowledgementsThe authors would like to acknowledge the financial support of the ‘COMET K1-Met - Competence Centre for Excellent Technologies in Advanced Metallurgical andEnvironmental Process Development’ of the Austrian Federal Ministry for Transport,Innovation and Technology (BMVIT), the Austrian Federal Ministry of Economy,Family and Youth (BMWFJ), the Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG), theProvince of Styria, the Styrian Business Promotion Agency (SFG) and the StahlwerkThüringen GmbH.

References[1] M Krischen; ‘Energieeffizienz und Emissionen der Lichtbogenöfen in derStahlindustrie’, Verlag Stahleisen GmbH, 2007[2] T Gröbel,D Huber, D Kreuzer, S Posch, M Haider,’Heat recovery steelmak-ing; Work packages 1-5’,Vienna University of Technology - Institute for EnergySystems and Thermodynamics, August, 2010[3] T Steinparzer, F Zauner, M Haider, G Enickl, A Hampel; ‘Concepts and sim-ulation results for off-gas heat recovery at electric arc furnace’, stahl und eisen,2012[4] S Marsoner; ‘Untersuchung des Hochtemperatur-Korrosionsverhaltens vonsechs verschiedenen Rohrwerkstoffen aus einem Waermetauscher’,Untersuchungsbericht Materials Centre Leoben, 2012

W E C O N V E Y Q U A L I T Y

Hot DRI Conveyor

AUMUND Foerdertechnik GmbH

AUMUND Hot DRI Transport in Inert Atmosphere

DRI. HBI. HCI.



Minimills

How the scrap affectsConsteel charging

This month’s web feature provides a description of the varioustypes of scrap available to the EAF operator and how theseaffect the performance of a Consteel continuous charging andscrap preheating conveyor. By F Memoli*, J AT Jones*, & F Picciolo**

*Tenova Core, 100 Corporate Center Drive, Coraopolis, PA, 15108

Tel +1 (412) 262-2240 e-mail [email protected]

**Tenova SpA, Via Monte Rosa 93, Milano, Italy, 20149 Tel +39 (02) 4384.1 e-mail:

[email protected]

THE Consteel® charged EAF is a very flexible process that can adopt awide range of scrap mixes in the metallic charge. More than 40 plants arecurrently operating Consteel technology, producing any kind of steelgrades, from rebar to stainless steel. They are using different types ofscrap mixes for their purposes.

Consteel combines preheating the scrap charge with continuous charg-ing by directing the off-gas from the EAF through a tunnel through whichthe scrap is slowly conveyed and charged continuously to the furnace viaa side wall port.

This work discusses scrap mix data collected in some Consteel plantscurrently operating worldwide, and how different scrap grades affect theoperation, consumption and the quality of liquid steel, whether for rebaror stainless steel, and grades between.

A good Consteel operations is achieved matching energy input to scrapfeed-rate. In the early days, that was achieved by manual control of thescrap feed-rate into the furnace. Nowadays this operation is fully auto-mated, thanks to the weighing systems on the EAF shell, which providesreal time liquid steel weight in the furnace. The key to maximumthroughput in the Consteel is to contain the arc in the slag, leading tomaximum arc stability and maximum and stable active power.

Being a continuous process, the best practice for scrap charge is alwaysto keep as near constant as possible the layer of scrap, in size (height) andgrade (mix), in order to have a smooth flow of scrap into the EAF. Thisconcept will be described further in the article.

Non-metallic components in the scrap will report to the dust in the off-gas. The Consteel process typically generates about a third less dust thana conventional bucket charged EAF. The heavier dust is captured in theincoming scrap and is recycled to the furnace.

The high yield in the Consteel process benefits from its design. Fluxes,chemical energy inputs and carbon inputs – whether in the metalliccharge, through injection into the EAF or other – must be properly bal-anced to maximize yield. Consteel operates without any highly oxidizingburner flame and the constant flat bath in the EAF helps keep the FeOoxidizing/reducing reactions within the slag itself, so that the proper car-bon balancing in the slag can lead to iron recovery and maximise metal-lic yield.

Consteel installations are characterised by a relatively low installedactive power factor which increases with heat size. This is perhaps themost important design difference between a Consteel and a convention-al EAF. In Ultra High Power electric arc furnaces bucket charged therelationship between active power and heat size can be as high 1:1. Incontrast, Consteel reduces the ratio to 0.5:1.

To download the full article visit www.steeltimesint.com/features

Global Consteel capacity is 40Mt/y, of which over aquarter has been installed in the past three-years

Lechler nozzleshave been settingstandards in qua-lity, performanceand design forover 130 years.

A wide range ofspecially developed and proven nozzlesof many different designs and in a rangeof materials is available for applicationsthroughout the processes of metal smelting,refining, casting, rolling and processing.

www.lechler.de

Lechler GmbHPrecision Nozzles · Nozzle SystemsP.O. Box 13 2372544 Metzingen/GermanyPhone +49 (7123) 962-0Fax +49 (7123) 962-333info@ lechler.de · www.lechler.de

NOZZLESAND SYSTEMS

minimills tenovaextract_Layout 1 11/6/13 10:54 AM Page 1

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Vacuum pump systems for steel degassingA comparison is made between the useof steam ejectors (SVP) and dry mechani-cal pumps (MVP) for vacuum treatmentof molten metal. While steam ejectorsare generally used for larger heat sizes inintegrated plants where steam is readilyavailable they are less energy efficientthan MVP, require greater vacuum capac-ity to treat similar sized melts and aremore expensive to maintain in particularwith regards to cleaning out and dispos-ing of sludge. The questions of dustabatement, leakage and the introductionof inert shielding gases or oxygen intothe metallurgical vessel are alsoaddressed as are the needs of suctioncapacity and the sensible choice ofdesign pressure. By WilhelmBurgmann* & Thore Gustafson**

dling and enable a lower design suction capaci-ty compared to systems without dust abate-ment. The need for suction capacity can thenbe reduced significantly.

Typical layoutsSteam ejector systems have also made progressregarding steam consumption. A typical SVPtoday is a four-stage arrangement consisting ofthree ejector stages and one water ring pumpstage (WRP). In cases where the condenserwater temperature is between 30 to 35°C, onemore ejector stage has to be added as shown inFig 1.

This figure shows the schematic build-up of amodern SVP system including its required aux-iliary equipment for water circulation and cool-ing, sludge handling and hot well venting.

In the case of the dry MVP systems todaythey have 3- or 4-stages using endless screw pri-mary pumps, exhausting to atmosphere andRoots blowers for the high volume-flow units.

The differences in the various MVP configu-rations are in the capacities of all the direct-exhausting pumps such as the primary and inter-mediate gas-cooled pumps, in the size and num-ber of different types of pumps, the kind ofmotor connection[3,4,5], the need of heatexchangers etc. Also there is the redundancyconcept, nearly unknown for SVP, and the easeand flexibility to cope with different process sit-uations such as rapid or controlled pump-down,constant volume flow and oxygen blowing in themetallurgical vessel. These are the main featuresin which MVPs from various suppliers differ.

A very important difference lies in the choiceof either a high number of small pumps withlow mass inertia or a few large pumps with highinertia[4,5]. The largest Roots pumps presentlyon the market have about 80 000m³/h effectivecapacity and a high inertia but are not suitablewhen large suction capacities and rapid pump-down are required for high productivity unitssuch as RH - and RHO-plants or whenever apump down modulation is required.


*Wilhelm Burgmann - Consultant in vacuum metallurgy / France and Germany: e-mail: [email protected]

**Thore Gustafson- Process Technology Director of GMC-Swiss Engineers/ Sweden and Bulgaria, e-mail: [email protected]

MECHANICAL vacuum pumps were the firstto be used on an industrial scale for steeldegassing in the late fifties and the early sixties.Stream degassing for Vacuum Ingot Teeming(VIT) according to the Bochumer Vereinprocess and the very first RH-plant inHattingen, Germany, in 1963 were equippedwith dry mechanical vacuum pumps (MVPs).

However, the demand for higher suctioncapacities and the development of multi-stagesteam ejector systems used as vacuum pumps(SVPs) reduced the use of MVPs and limitedthem to smaller melts in ladle- and tank-degassing (VD/VOD), tap degassing (TD) andVacuum Induction Degassing or Melting (VID,VIM).

The reasons for favouring SVPs were the lowapparent investment cost and the relatively lowsteam cost available in integrated steel plants.For the minimill, production of steam by evapo-ration cooling of the EAF offgas ducting is notyet a fully developed technology and, because ofthe batch nature of the process, steam storage isalso necessary, but efforts are increasingly beingmade to find the best use of this energy.

But beside the steam cost, a lack of environ-mental consciousness and the related costexternalisation for cleaning, sludge and dusthandling has for a long time been detrimentalto the development of the MVP.

It was only at the beginning of the millenni-um that MVPs were increasingly being chosenthanks to their proven long term-reliability andtheir undisputed, mainly energy-related advan-tages in operating cost.[1,2]

Only the overall costs should be considered,including those necessary to meet emissionrules constraints and safety standards and onlythe pressure requirements at the vessel are tobe considered when comparing vacuum pumpsystems.

Also the means and use of dust abatementsystems should be reconsidered since they offercost savings by reducing the frequency of clean-ing, result in less wear, and little sludge han-

Fig 2 shows two typical layouts of 3-stage and4-stage MVPs, that are both shown to the samescale and which have the same suction capacity.

All types of vacuum pumps have to fulfil thesame tasks which include:– Quick pump down to a pressure at which

intensive degassing reactions start;– Controlled pump down in medium pressure

ranges from 400 to 10hPa depending on thedegree of deoxidation and presence of dis-solved gases;

– Maintaining a nearly constant volume flow under the high gas load conditions generatedby oxygen blowing;

– Reach a low pressure at the end of the treat-ment cycle depending upon the argon flow rate used in degassing by purging or for lift-ing and stirring.

Such tasks have to be fulfilled under more orless heavy gas loads that do not contribute tothe metallurgical targets or that are even detri-mental to these targets such as air leaks and theuse of protective gases to keep clear observa-tion ports and blowing lances when in stand-byposition.

Pump auxiliary equipment One great difference between the SVP andMVP lies in the handling of the off-gas betweenthe reaction vessel, the pump set and the envi-ronment.

All MVPs do in fact need dust abatement forall processes and gas cooling for the oxidisingprocesses treatments such as VD-OB, RHO andVOD. For SVP this is required only for the lattertwo processes. However, dust abatement is use-ful for all vacuum processes using SVP since itincreases the time between cleaning intervals,eliminates any sludge disposal and enables a SVPdesign for a lower suction capacity.

The connection line between vessel and vac-uum pump generates considerable pressuredrop that cannot be neglected when determin-

Water<3 bar, <35°CSteam12 bar, 200°C

Cooling tower

Off-water45°C

Hot well Sludge

Off gas20mg/m3

Fig1 Typical layout of a 5-stage steam ejector system

WRP


minimills burgmann_Layout 1 11/5/13 10:51 AM Page 1


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ject to development. One of the main differ-ences lies in the fact that MVPs cannot accept agas inlet temperature of over 50°C whereasSVP systems admit gases as hot as 250°C.

Another important difference lies in the capa-bility to handle dust-laden gases. For an MVPsuch a gas load is rather restricted but the SVPcan carry the unfiltered gases even while thisgenerates some important disadvantages includ-ing ejector clogging, erosion, sludge formationetc. To reduce these handicaps some SVP sys-tems have off-line cyclones or in-line filters.

The various system related equipment arelisted in Table 1.

Notes on Table 1� The suction pipes should be refractory lined

or partially water-cooled for all oxygen usingprocesses that generate CO, the post-com-bustion of which cannot be controlled.

� Dust abatement requires a ‘dust catcher’ forthe coarser grain particles and spatter in all processes in which vigorous reactions causedeither by intensive use of argon or by oxygeninjection, take place. The so-called ‘gas cooler’ in RH- plants has essentially this function.Further dust abatement by means of a cyclone is recommended for all oxygen- usingprocesses in order not to overload the subse-quent down-line bag filter. Additional gas cooling is necessary each time CO is formedby forced decarburisation and the gas tem-perature must be cooled to the temperature admitted for bag filters (<120°C) or for the pump system (<250°C for an SVP or <50°Cfor an MVP).

� Bath observation is not specific to any pumpsystem. It may be used during start-up of thevacuum plant in order to establish specific pump-down curves for several steel grade families that are then laid down in a processmenu. This is increasingly important the lower the freeboard and the heavier is the gasload. In MVP systems such controlled pump-down is very easy to establish by frequency modulation of the pump motors and does not require additional hardware or increase energy consumption. In no case is permanentbath observation required. When observationis required the use of a protective gas at a rate of ~15Sm³/h only for the duration of observation is necessary to keep the port clear.

� ATEX (explosion safety) certificates are required each time there is significant evolu-tion of H2 during degassing or of CO duringdecarburisation as explosive gas mixtures andignition temperatures may occur. Such a cer-tificate covers the whole vacuum plant whenever mechanical pumps are in use, ie WRP inSVP systems and in all MVP systems. In gen-eral, a certificate of zone 1, category 2 (inte-rior) is sufficient.

� Cleaning of any pump system is only neces-sary in cases where no bag filter is installed. Some of the mechanical primary pumps havean additional self-cleaning device to remove any residual, fine dust[3].

� Dust handling by collection or pneumatic transport is necessary for all pump systems. In addition to this the very costly sludge han-dling must be cared for in all wet systems.

� Water treatment for cooling, filtering, CO-removal and oxidation prevention is requiredfor all SVP-systems. In MVP-systems the total water throughput is so low that it can beof once-through type or closed circuit. A

ing the need for suction capacity and for thepressure to be reached at the reaction vessel.Such pressure drops may annihilate 10% of theinstalled suction capacity for plants of heat

sizes below 30t, and may exceed 40% in plantsfor heats over 300t.

The auxiliary equipment related to the twopump types is very different today but still sub-

Suction pipe

- Uncooled x x

- Refractory lined (x)

- Water cooled x x xx xx x (x) xx

Dust catcher x x x x x x xx xx

Cyclone x x xx xx

Gas Cooler x x xx xx (x) (x) x x

Bag filter (x) x (x) x (x) x (x) x (x) x

Bath observation (x) (x) (x) (x) (x) (x) (x) (x) (x) (x)

ATEX equipment (x) x x x x (x) x x

Cleaning x xx xxx x xx

Dust handling x x x x xx xx x x x x

Sludge handling x x xx x xx

Water treatment x x x x x

Steam handling x x x x x

x required (x) recommended

Process VD VD-OB VOD RH RHOBSVP MVP SVP MVP SVP MVP SVP MVP SVP MVP

Table 1 Equipment required for various pump types and processes

Fig 2 Layout of a 2-level- 3 stage (left) and a 4-stage (right) MVP both for an effective suc-tion capacity of ~120000m³/h at 0.67hPa and both to the same scale

Vacuum steam ejectorsMass conveyers dependent on gas density

High density gas

High density gas

Low density gas

Low steam efficiency

Low density gas

High steam efficiency

High energy efficiency Low energy efficiency

Mechanical vacuum pumps

Volume conveyers independent of gas density

Fig 3 Energy efficiency of different vacuum pump types


Minimills


higher than in MVP-systems of comparable performance.

� Pump-down control becomes energy con-suming when it is carried out using inert gasinjection or by recirculation of the off-gas. However, there is no need to do so with a modern MVP[3,4,5].

� The conveying of hot dust-laden gases require additional energy. About 10% more steam is required when the off-gases are at 250°C instead of 20°C[6].

� The vacuum is killed after every treatment cycle and must be re-established for a new cycle since a main isolation valve between theSVP and the reaction vessel is not usually installed, unless a dust abatement system is foreseen. In fact, reliable raw gas isolation valves exist that are made to withstand the high gas temperatures and erosion by high-speed dust particles without creating a high pressure drop[7]. This permits a vacuum to be maintained in the vacuum bag filter between treatment cycles and therefore aidsa rapid drop in vessel pressure down to 400-700hPa when opening the main shut-off valve, thereby equilibrating pressures between the vacuum vessel and vacuum bagfilter.

� Very large air leaks are tolerated in SVP sys-tems since they are compensated by excessivesuction capacity[2]. However, it is evident that reducing air leaks is cheaper than installing additional suction capacity and consuming additional energy. There are industrial Vacuum Induction Degassing plants (VID, VIM) for heats up to 30t that have air leaks of <100hPa-litre/sec (<0.4kg/h). While such plants have the sametightening problems as other vacuum plants with a main vessel sealing, they may have additional devices such as an observation port, lance port, swivel joint, as well as dust

abatement and dust extraction mechanisms. (It should be noted that air leaks in RH-plants are estimated and not measured. In case they were measured by the traditional pressure rising test the result would also include leaks of all steam- and water- valves as well as those of the isolation devices at thepump set stack – although such leaks are of no interest or harm.)

� Protection gases are admitted in large amounts. As an example the suction capacityneeded for a 150Sm³/h flow of nitrogen to protect an oxygen lance in stand-by posi-tion[2] to prevent clogging could be avoided if the lance is lifted high enough in the vesseland protected by a flap. This would save theneed of a suction capacity of about 230 000m³/h at 0.67hPa and the associated investment costing about €1.4M in the case of a MVP, as well as ~€0.25M running cost ayear at a production rate of 1.5Mt/y[1]. This money could better be made available to modify the lance design or used in other waysto avoid the need for this large amount of protecting gas.Air leaks, protective gas flows and argon for metallurgical purpose are listed in Table 2 forthe various processes.

� Pressure drops requiring an additional suction capacity of > 40% can frequently beobserved on large heats. As an example heats>300t with about 1200kg/h DAE (Dry Air Equivalent) or 1.5Mm³/h SVP suction capac-ity at 0.67hPa[2] would require a first stage ejector port of 2.1m diameter. The 18 units of the MVP system installed at the latest 230tRH- plant[8] with suction off-takes of DN 600 each would require a suction pipe diam-eter of 2.5m in order not to generate undue pressure losses. However, due to dimension-al limits or restricted space the suction portsof VD- tanks or RH-vessels rarely exceed 1.8m in diameter. Thus a 25m suction pipe with 8 elbows at 90° (5 segments, R/D=2) generates a large pressure drop. Without anyfilter the suction capacity would drop by 26%, such that only 1.11Mm³/h would be available at the reaction vessel. In the case ofa filter with a surface area of 2200m³/h beinginstalled, the effective suction capacity at thevessel would drop by 37% down to 0.95Mm³/h at 0.67hPa.

This situation is demonstrated in Fig 4. Inthis figure, the volume flows for various pumpsystems as prevailing at the pump and at themetallurgical reaction vessel are shown in thelow pressure range. The volume flow in m³/hover vacuum pressure in an SVP and a MVPsystem having the same design pump capacityof 1200kg/h DAE at 0 67hPa and an MVP unitwith only 80% of this capacity are illustrated inthis figure. Bypassing of the filter is presumedbelow 2hPa vessel pressure.

Suction capacitiesSVP systems are focussed on heavier meltweights of up to 360t. Their suction capacitiesare seldom <100kg/h and in large RH-OB-plants may reach 1200kg/h DAE at 0.67hPa, anequivalent of 1.5Mm³/h[2] and 2200kg/h at2hPa (0.92Mm³/h).

MVP pumps are mainly used for the smallerheats of 10-80t, but their use has been extend-ed up to 230t heats with 650kg/h at 0.67hPaand 1750kg/h at 2hPa[8]. The extension of theuse of MVP sets for large heat weights shows nolimit as additional pump sets can be added.

nitrogen buffered circuit can be used for sec-ondary cooling using nitrogen gas.

� Steam handling requires either storage, super-heating and isolation of the steam reservoir in case of excess steam formation inan integrated steel plant or minimill, or the generation of steam in a fuel fired boiler thatis kept at a low firing rate during stand- by.

Energy consumptionFor a considerable period of time a short-sight-ed consideration of the costs of investment andoperating as well as for safety, health and envi-ronmental aspects led to the erroneous devel-opment of vacuum plants that operate withSVP since steam was considered to be a verycheap source of energy.

Large air leaks, protective gas flows and pres-sure drops were therefore accepted and led tothe design of huge steam ejectors demandingextremely high energy consumption. Efforts toreduce or eliminate such costs were neglected.As a result vacuum plants using SVPs becamesignificant energy-wasting devices for the fol-lowing reasons:� The energy efficiency of any SVP system is

poor. The consumption of steam from a boil-er or from a steam grid is nearly constant butis high from pump-down to the end of treat-ment when the gas density is very low. In con-trast, with MVP systems the energy demandfrom the supply grid shows a peak of about two-thirds of the installed motor power whenthe pressure reaches around 30-60hPa due tothe combination of compression ratio and gas density but falls continuously towards theend of the treatment cycle, absorbing only one-third of the installed motor power by then. This difference in energy efficiency is illus-trated in Fig 3. The electric energy consump-tion of SVP-systems, as illustrated in Fig 1, is

Vessel type

- Furnace

- Laddle

- Tank

- Converter

- Circulation vessel

Sources of leaks

- Main vessel sealing x xxx xx xxx xx xx

- Off-gas swivel joint xxx xxx

- Snorkel connection xxx xxx

- Alloying chute xx xxx xx xxx xxx xxx

- Lance port xxx xxx xxx

- Sampling port xxx

- Observation port x x x x x x

Observed leaks in kg/h§ 0,4 30-50 5-25 30-60 1-5 20-50 40-50 60-90

Target leaks in kg/h 0,1 <30 <10 <30 <5 <20 <40 <60

Protective gases

-Blowing lance x x xxx

- Observation port x x x xx x

Observed gas rates in Sm3/h 6-10 6-10 6-10 10-20 10-30 20-60 10-20 >150

Target gas rates in Sm3/h <10 <10 <10 <10 10-30 <10 <10 <10

Purging gas

- For melt stirring in litre/min/t <0,5 1-3 2-5 5-6 - 5-6

- For melt lifting in litre/min/t - 6-8 6-8

Process VID VD in ladle VD in tank VODC VIT VD-OB/ RH RH-OBVOD

Table 2 Sources of leaks and protective gases for various vacuum plants and processes.VID: Vacuum Induction Degassing, VCD: Vacuum Carbon Deoxidation, VODC: Vacuum Oxygen Decarburisation in Converter,

VIT: Vacuum Ingot Teeming, VD-OB: Vacuum Degassing assisted by Oxygen Blowing, RH: Vacuum Circulation Process, RHOB -

RH assisted by Oxygen




Minimills


even those without dust abatement. Forinstance, with the same design of dust abate-ment and duct connection a reduction of 20%of the pump capacity is possible and the effec-tive and useful capacity at the vessel would onlybe reduced by 10%.

Any fabric filter for dust abatement as recom-mended also for SVP would of course increasethe pressure drop considerably, but such fabricfilters would not only increase the cleaninginterval but would also permit a change in ejec-tor design aimed at less capacity reserve forclogging, erosion wear and dust conveying. Lastbut not least, the filters could be by-passed atlow pressure as this is the state of the art inVID- and VIM- plants. By-passing of the dustfilter <2hPa vessel pressure should be possiblein any pump system for degassing processeswith a prolonged cycle time below 2hPa, thuspermitting either a smaller filter surface oroperating with less pressure loss and the largerfilter surface.

Fig 4, however, does not show the real needof suction capacity. In fact out of the 2200kg/hat 2hPa (0.92Mm³/h), resulting from a SVPdesign of 1200kg/h at 0.67hPa (1.5Mm³/h)~20% are needed for the permanent gas loadby Ar, N2 and air, only 5% for the process gasesCO, N2 and H2, 15% to compensate pressuredrops while the remainder of 60% is foreseen tocompensate other losses by ejector clogging,nozzle wear and bad fluid conditions.

This latter figure becomes nil in case of MVP.If lower final treatment pressures are aimed atthe remaining reserve for these other losses maydrop significantly but is still nil in case of MVP.

ConclusionsPrior to selecting a vacuum degassing installa-tion, one should carefully look at reducing thesources of leaks and the use of protective gasesand to aim for a minimum of pressure loss whilethe argon flow rate should be kept high for allvacuum processes.

Dust abatement should always be foreseen tolimit the pump size and to reduce productionlosses due to stoppage for cleaning. As shownfor MVP, the suction capacity could be reducedsignificantly, by at least 30%. The design pres-sure could then be selected at a useful level thathas been proven to give the desired metallurgi-cal results. If, rather than 0.67hPa, a designpressure of 1.33hPa is sufficient the investmentcost for MVP systems could be cut by a further20%, or if 2hPa is acceptable, as usual for allprocesses involving a high amount of argon, this

cost could be reduced by 33% still reaching thesame effective capacity at the vessel.

The pump system that offers the highest flex-ibility in terms of response time to gas loadchanges, redundancy, rapid exchangeability ofindividual pumps and upgrading is the pre-ferred option[3,4].

Steam ejector vacuum pumps (SVP) are usedon larger melt sizes from 150 to 360t and inintegrated steel plants mainly because of theavailability of steam.

Both systems have made progress in energyoptimising but, the MVPs have a striking ener-gy advantage.

The pay-off time of a MVP increases the largerthe melt size, the lower the productivity and, thelower the steam cost when compared with SVP.

Depending on the design pressure required,MVP systems can reach the same performanceat the reaction vessel with much less capacitythan needed by a SVP system.

References[1] Burgmann, W, Davené, J The cost structure of vacuumdegassing including ladle furnace treatment Stahl und Eisen6 (2012) pp 59-66[2] Dorstewitz, F,Tembergen, D Kriterien zur individuellenAuswahl des Vakuumpumpensystems für pfannen-metallur-gische AnlagenStahl und Eisen 133 (2013) No 5, pp 33-44[3] Zöllig, U, Dreifert, T Latest generation mechanical vacu-um technology for secondary steelmaking MPT Intern 3(2011) pp 98-103[4] Burgmann, W Latest Development in mechanical vacu-um pumps for steel degassing Steel Times International 7/8(2013) pp 24-30[5] Burgmann, W, Göhler,K Modern mechanical vacuumpumps for steel degassing of smallest and largest meltsMetallurg / Moscow 6(2013) pp 54-61 (Russian, available inEnglish and German)[6] Heat Exchange Institute Inc, Cleveland /Ohio/USAStandards for Steam Jet Vacuum Systems, 5th ed (2000) pp28-30[7] Burgmann,W, Davené,J, Laffitte, J Off gas preparation formechanical vacuum pumps To be published in La metallurgiaItaliana.11(2013). See also Stahl und Eisen 4 (2013) p 52[8] Bruce, S Cheetham, V Dry vacuum aids steel degassingVacuum challenges and solutions 8 (2009) pp 12-13

[9] Gottardi,R, Partyka,A, Miani,S,Volpe, M Steel DegassingOperations Using Mechanical Vacuum Pump Systems ProcAIS Techn Pittsburgh/Pa/USA, Vol I (2010) pp 1243-1252[10] Burgmann, W Vacuum Pumps for Steel Degassing MPTIntern 5 (2001) pp 56-60[11] Zemp, R, Stahel,J, Burgmann,W Vorteile mechanischerPumpen für die Entgasung von Stahlschmelzen Stahl undEisen 8 (2008) pp 45-50

Many MVP systems have been operating suc-cessfully for decades at a level of 25-40kg/hDAE suction capacity at 0.67hPa for melts inthe range of 25-50t.

Fig 5 shows the development of MVP sys-tems for various heat weights.

MVP systems are volume conveyors ie theyare independent from the gas density. SVP-sys-tems are mass conveyors but are not independ-ent from gas density. In fact for the SVP-sys-tems a Total Mass Air Equivalent (TMAE) mustbe determined[2,6] that is up to 2.7 times high-er than the Dry Air Equivalent (DAE) depend-ing upon the off-gas composition. Therefore forequal heat weights the mass flow capacity ofany SVP system is up to 2.7 times greater thanfor MVP systems[9].

Other reasons for this difference have beenexplained in the past[10,11], and they are mainlybased on:– the higher gas temperature admitted at the

pump inlet[6];– the higher dust load;– a reserve for ejector clogging;– a reserve for wear of steam nozzles and

ejectors;– a reserve for weak conditions of steam and

water; and– upon the pump characteristics as explained

below.

In fact, Fig 4 shows more than the effect ofpressure drop. It shows the essential differencein pump characteristics of the two systems.While the suction capacity is equal at a givendesign point (0.67hPa) the MVP systems have amuch higher capacity in volume flow (and massflow) at higher vacuum pressures. The charac-teristic pump curves of the two systems can beobserved at the pump and at the reaction ves-sel, irrespective of the most sophisticated dustabatement device.

The usual practice in SVP systems, designedfor 0.67hPa, is to operate at about 2hPa finalpump pressure. This arises due to a significantloss of pump performance caused by ejectorclogging and cannot be attributed to adecreased tightness of the plant (such tightnesscannot be checked in RH-plants). Acceptingthis situation, which is not detrimental to themetallurgical performances in vacuum process-es using high argon flows eg 4-8 l/min/t, onecould use MVP systems with much lower0.67hPa-capacities than those of the SVP sys-tems since the MVP performance with dustabatement exceeds those of the SVP systems,

Fig 5 Melt sizes treated with dry operating mechanical vacuumpumps in VD/VOD plants since 2000 (year of ordering)

1650000

1550000

1450000

1350000

1250000

1150000

1050000

950000

850000

750000

650000

5500000,5

Volu

me

flow

in m

3 /h

Mel

t si

ze in

met

ric

tons

1,0 1,5

Usual operational VD-range

Usual operational RH-range

2,0Suction pressure at pump and vessel in hPa (a)

2,5 3,0 3,5

SVP at pumpSVP at vesselMVP at pumpMVP at vessel80% MVP at pump

80% MVP at vessel

350

300Orders for vacuum plants

Projected vacuum plants

Year

250

200

150

100

50

02000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014>2015

Fig 4 Volume flow in m³/h over vacuum pressure in an SVP and anMVP system having the same design pump capacity of 1200kg/hDAE at 0 67hPa and an MVP unit with only 80% of this capacity.Bypassing of the filter is presumed below 2hPa vessel pressure


Coating

A more sophisticated life cycle assessment comparing galvanised steel utility poleswhich have a life of 80 years with chemically treated timber poles which have a lifespan of 40 years reveals a lower impact on the environment and GHG emissionsusing the steel poles taking into account land usage, wildlife disturbance and disposalat end of life where treated timber poles constitute a hazardous waste but steel polescan be recycled.

with steel poles resulted in several significantenvironmental benefits, including:• Lower greenhouse gas and aerosol emissions

associated with global climate change. Whenconsidered over the entire 40-year time span,the accumulated greenhouse gas and aerosolemissions associated with global climate change are lower for the steel pole scenario. This result challenges the common assump-tion that treated wood products have a lowercarbon footprint than steel products. It reflects the emissions of greenhouse gases and aerosols associated with the CCA-treat-ment and installation of the wood poles, as well as the production of wood from south-ern yellow pine using short-rotation, even-aged forest management practices, which result in losses of forest carbon storage of between 20 to 30%, equivalent to 20 to 40 tons of carbon dioxide per acre. Emissions related to steel poles occur during hot-rolledcoil steel production, galvanization, zinc smelting and installation.

• Lower energy resource depletion values. Thesteel pole scenario results in the use of approximately half the non-renewable energyresources, requiring 300 000 fewer barrels ofoil (equivalent) versus the wood pole sce-nario over a 40-year timeframe.

• Lower impacts on the habitats of threatenedand endangered animal species. In the steel pole scenario, the habitats of three key terrestrial species are impacted, compared to sevenkey terrestrial species in the wood pole sce-nario. In terms of key wetland species, the steel pole system does not have any signifi-cant impacts, while 81 species experienced disturbance to freshwater and/or wetland habitats in the wood pole scenario.

• Lower impacts to terrestrial biomes. When averaged over the 40-year time horizon, the results for terrestrial biome disturbance are equivalent to the full disturbance of approxi-mately 12 000 acres for the wood pole sce-nario, compared to only approximately 15 acres in the steel pole scenario.

• Reduced hazardous emissions and wastes. The CCA formulation used for wood pole treatment is made from arsenic ore that is mined primarily in China. Arsenic is known to be chronically toxic and carcinogenic at elevated levels. In the United States, old wood poles are exempted from managementas a hazardous waste under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, though CCA-treated lumber in residential applica-tions is considered a hazardous waste. In thewood pole scenario, their disposal results in more than 590 000 tons of waste over a 40-year timeframe.

The study was conducted by SCS Global

Services, a global leader in third-party environ-mental and sustainability certification, auditing,testing and standards development for nearly30 years. SCS programmes span a wide cross-section of sectors, recognizing exemplary per-formance in natural resource management,green building, product manufacturing, foodand agriculture, retailing and more. SCS is aCertified B Corporation™, reflecting its com-mitment to socially and environmentallyresponsible business practice.

Lawrence W Kavanagh, president of SMDIcomments; “Every material choice has environ-mental consequences at some point during itsmanufacture, use and disposal. Manufacturershave a responsibility to know what these conse-quences are in order to identify improvementopportunities, while simultaneously helpingcustomers make the best informed decisions.We are pleased to be able to share the results ofthis study with our customers, demonstratingthat steel poles have superior environmentalperformance for a wide range of indicators.”

“Steel’s high recycling rate also means that itgets used over and over in all of its applicationsand that steel poles offer a clear advantage interms of life-cycle cost efficiency.”

The steel utility distribution pole programmeis conducted under the Construction MarketCouncil of the Steel Market DevelopmentInstitute. The investor companies of theConstruction Market Council include: AK SteelCorporation, ArcelorMittal Dofasco,ArcelorMittal USA LLC, Evraz North America,Gerdau, Nucor Corporation, Severstal NorthAmerica, SSAB Americas, Steelscape, Inc.,ThyssenKrupp Steel USA, LLC, United StatesSteel Corporation, and USS-Posco Industries.

Contacts

Steel Market Development Institute www.smdisteel.org

Tel + 202-452-7179


A DETAILED life cycle assessment (LCA)study commissioned in the USA by the SteelMarket Development Institute (SMDI), a busi-ness unit of the American Iron and SteelInstitute, finds that when comparing overallenvironmental performance, galvanized steelutility poles outperform wood poles in key envi-ronmental measures. The peer-reviewed study,conducted in compliance with internationalLCA standards (ISO-14040-series), is the mostcomprehensive environmental assessment of itskind to date, bringing a new level of transparen-cy to the comparative performance of these twomaterial choices.

The study compared the use of galvanizedsteel and wood utility poles in the south-easternUnited States over a 40-year time horizon. Itstands apart from previous studies in that itapplied advanced LCA methods to ensure amore comprehensive assessment and reportingof the full range of potential environmentalimpacts associated with both galvanized steeland wood, including local and regional ecologi-cal impacts. Among its findings, the studyshowed that replacing wood utility poles withgalvanized steel poles will likely result in lowerlevels of greenhouse gas and aerosol emissionsassociated with global climate change, a lowerburden on critical energy resources, reducedimpacts on the habitats of many threatened andendangered species, and reduced impacts asso-ciated with hazardous emissions and wastes.The primary drivers for these findings are thelonger lifespan of steel poles, high steel recy-cling rates, and the overall ecological and landuse impacts of growing, harvesting and replant-ing the forests used to produce wood poles.

The study considered 45-foot-tall, Class2/Grade B distribution poles and included theproduction, installation, maintenance and dis-posal of the poles. It assessed wood poles madefrom southern yellow pine grown in the southeastern region of the United States and treatedwith chromated copper arsenic (CCA), a typicalpractice. The steel poles in the study were pro-duced using North American hot-rolled steelcoil and were hot-dip galvanized.

Two different scenarios were compared – onein which wood poles were taken out of serviceas a result of pole failure and continued to bereplaced by Class 2 wood poles, and the otherin which wood poles taken out of service due topole failure were replaced by galvanized steelutility poles. In both scenarios, the total numberof utility poles in operation was held constant atone million poles. Based on prevailing industrydata, the wood poles were assumed to bereplaced at a rate of 2.5% per year (40-yearlifespan), while steel poles were assumed to bereplaced at a rate of 1.25% per year (80-yearlifespan).

The study found that replacing wood poles

LCA shows steel utility polesbetter than wood

Galvanised steel polesoffer twice the life spanof timber poles resultingin less impact in manu-facture and installation


LCA_Layout 1 11/6/13 8:45 AM Page 1

Coating

A low temperature Chemical Vapour Deposition (CVD) coating has been developed asan alternative to hard chrome plating as the use of this product is increasingly beingcurtailed on Health & Safety grounds. The new coating’s properties match or aresuperior to those of HCP.

This includes enhanced protection against corro-sion, wear and chemically aggressive media,enhanced fatigue life and a non-porous structure.

Advantages include:• Coats internal surfaces and complex shapes

uniformly due to non line-of-sight process;• No grinding or other expensive finishing

operations required due to smooth and uni-form surface ‘as coated’;

• Easily applied to a wide range of metals including various grades of stainless steel, tool and alloy steels, nickel, cobalt and cop-per-based alloys and titanium;

• Applications include actuators, pistons, bush-es, bearings, turbine blades, valves, landing gear, pins, hooks and latches; and

• Has AS 9100 and ISO 14001 certifications.

A number of other alternatives to HCP areavailable including thermal spray, in particularhigh-velocity oxy-fuel (HVOF) and emergingprocesses such as electroless nickel compositeplating, explosive bonding, electrodepositednanocrystalline cobalt-phosphorus alloys andphysical vapour deposition (PVD) coatings. Todate, HVOF and other spray coatings havebeen considered the best available alternativeto HCP. However, Hardide-A provides severaladvantages over HVOF such as versatile geo-metric compatibility, corrosion and fatigueresistance and facilitated finishing.

Hardide is a tungsten carbide based coating

deposited by low temperature Chemical VapourDeposition (CVD). This method of deposiionenables coating out of line of sight internal sur-faces and complex shape items.

The company has successfully completed thefirst of two test phases to approve Hardide-A asa replacement for HCP on an application forAgustaWestland, and, if successful, the Hardidecoating will be approved for use on a specificAgustaWestland helicopter rotor blade compo-nent. The helicopter manufacturer is also con-sidering other applications for the coating.

The coating has featured positively as analternative for hard chromium plating forsevere service valves in a peer-reviewed articlein Elsevier’s Materials Chemistry and Physics,the international journal on science, characteri-sation and processing of advanced materials.The July 2013 article was independentlyauthored by valve manufacturer Velan Inc, theUniversité de Montréal and Notre DameUniversity-Louize, Lebanon.

Contact

Hardide Coatings Ltd, 11 Wedgwood Road, Bicester, OX26 4UL,

UK Tel +44 (0) 1869 353830 Fax +44 (0) 1869 353831

[email protected] www.hardide.com


AN innovative coating to extend the life andimprove the performance of drilling tools oper-ating in extremely abrasive environments hasbeen developed by Hardide Coatings of UK.This is the first successful high performancecoating for TSP (thermally stable polycrys-talline) diamonds which can withstand the high-er temperatures associated with TSP brazing,extreme loads and aggressive media.

This will enable a new generation of dia-mond-based hardfacing materials to bedeployed in extremely abrasive wear and erosiveconditions such as horizontal and directionaldrilling, as well as fracking. Improved tool per-formance will enhance the viability of more chal-lenging or marginal oil and gas reserves.

Hardide Coatings CEO Philip Kirkham said:“Drilling activity is taking place in deeper andmore demanding conditions than ever beforeand tools need protection from extreme abra-

sive wear and erosion that current hardfacingmaterials can no longer provide.

“Some critical drill string components needreplacement after every drilling programme, sothe new coating application will reduce expen-sive maintenance and down time costs ofdrilling projects. This will in turn boost the eco-nomics of smaller and more mature oil and gasfields, such as those in the North Sea.”

Diamonds are notoriously difficult to attachand are prone to oxidation and graphitization,limiting their hardfacing use to date. Previousattempts to solve these problems have beenunsuccessful due to the porosity of other coat-ings and their weak adhesion to the diamonds.Hardide-D overcame these hurdles with itspore-free tungsten carbide based adhesive andprotective coating which chemically bonds todiamond and has good wettability with brazingalloys.

The coating was developed in the company’sOxfordshire manufacturing facility followingseveral years of fundamental research. The pro-duction process was developed with the sup-port of a Technology Strategy Board (TSB)‘Smart’ grant for up to £250000 which wasawarded in January 2013. The technology iscovered by new UK and international patentapplications.

Hardide Coatings has signed a mutuallyexclusive five-year supply agreement with hard-facing specialists Cutting & Wear ResistantDevelopments Limited of Sheffield for its usein oil and gas applications.

Contact

Hardide Coatings Ltd, 11 Wedgwood Road, Bicester, OX26 4UL,

UK Tel +44 (0) 1869 353830 Fax +44 (0) 1869 353831

[email protected] www.hardide.com

AN advanced surface coating technology offersa revolutionary alternative to the use of toxichard-chrome plating (HCP) which will soon berestricted or banned by may authorities.

HCP has been a mainstay of industrial coat-ing in aerospace, heavy equipment, automotiveand various other industries for many years.However, the hexavalent chrome salts used toproduce HCP pose extreme health and envi-ronmental hazards.

The coating meets strict new EU and USenvironmental standards and provides compa-rable wear, corrosion, hardness, surface finishand substrate bonding properties to HCP.Unlike most HCP alternatives, the coating;‘Hardide-A’ is also suitable for internal surfacesand complex shapes.

The safeguarding EU and US regulationsmean chrome plating is incurring rising costs,extensive regulation and onerous paperwork.Under EU REACH regulations, HCP use willbe severely restricted and could be banned. Asearch has been led by the aerospace industry tofind suitable alternatives.

Hardide-A is a tungsten carbide based coatingand matches the standard thickness (50-100microns) and hardness (800-1200Hv50) of HCP,simplifying the transition without a need fordimensional changes or drawing re-design.HCP’s intrinsic performance limitations hinderits more demanding wear applications andHardide-A outperforms it in several key areas.

*Published as ‘L Vernhes, et al, Alternatives for hard chromium plating: Nanostructured coatings for severe-service valves, Materials Chemistry and Physics (2013)’ and available to purchase at

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.matchemphys.2013.03.065.

Hardide coated components being precision measured

Hardide Coatings solves hardchrome plating problem

Hardide Coatings to unveil diamonds coating

Hardide TSPs on reactor


HARDITE_Layout 1 11/6/13 8:45 AM Page 1

Steel Times International – November/December 2013 – 39www.steeltimesint.com

worldsteel – 47 São Paulo

The theme of this year’s annualmeeting and conference of theWorld Steel Association (worldsteel)was ‘A sustainable future for steel’.

(inevitably there will always be some no shows)unsurprisingly, delegates from Brazil dominatedwith around 47 present (~20%). Surprisingly,the remainder of Latin America was not well rep-resented with just Argentina (3), Mexico (1) anda representative from the Latin American SteelAssociation (Alacero) – headquartered in Chile,present. Japan represented the second largestgroup (21), followed by USA (19), S Korea (14)and China and Germany with 12 each. Russiawas present with 8 as was Saudi Arabia whichdominated the Gulf countries. Sweden, Finlandand Turkey each sent 7. It is interesting to notethis strong Scandinavian presence which, apartfrom Germany, (and Brussels (12) which wasbiased by worldsteel personnel) dominated theEuropean representation.

New this year was the introduction of panelsessions in which each panellist first gave ashort talk on the topic being addressed and amoderator then questioned each and also tookquestions from the floor – e-mailed from dele-gates to a dedicated address – such is theadvance of mobile technology.

The conference opened with a welcomingaddress from André Johannpeter, President &CEO of Gerdau – the international long prod-ucts producer headquartered in Brazil – but atruly international company based on the min-imill concept with 60 plants mainly in LatinAmerica, USA and Spain.

Mr Johannpeter highlighted the areas hold-ing back Brazil’s industrial development as;

inadequate education, high taxes, expensivepower, too strong a currency and de-industrial-isation (as a result of its unbalanced exports ofiron ore inflating the value of the Real), highinterest rates, poor logistics, inadequate savingsand low per-capita consumption of steel.

Retiring worldsteel Chairman, AlexMordashov, CEO Severstal then welcomed thegathering and stressed that the world economymust grow but in a sustainable manner. Therewere many challenges but also opportunities.The world population would reach 5bn by 2050and all would need houses, roads and cars,which offered a massive market for steel. Thesupply of raw materials had undergone a dra-matic change in recent years, but with new min-ing capacity coming on stream the volatility inpricing should reduce. However, ore was notthe only raw material and reducing water con-sumption was increasingly important.

This was followed by a keynote address byFernando Pimentel, Minister of Development,Industry & Foreign Trade of the government ofBrazil.

Mr Pimentel referred to the excess capacity insteel production quoting a global overcapacityof 500-600Mt. In addition, the economic crisisin Europe and the continuing political battlesbetween Democrats and Republicans in theUSA was adding to global financial instability.He also warned the steel industry not to becometoo reliant on Asia as a market but to seek otherregions as well. Brazil, for example, offered a

FOR the first time held in São Paulo – althoughnot the first time in Brazil as the Association hasmet before in Rio de Janeiro in 1986 and againin 1995 – the event was hosted by the Brazilianmembers of worldsteel.

At the time of the meeting − 7-9 October,Brazil is entering its Spring season with treesand flowers in blossom along the crowdedstreets of Brazil’s – and indeed the southernhemisphere’s – largest city with a population ofover 19.8 million in the metropolitan area. It isthe industrial and business centre of the coun-try and the presence of new high rise towers ris-ing among the streets and for miles beyond thecity centre give testament to this and Brazil’sposition as one of the BRIC countries, all be itone that has seen some slow-down since 2010.

The event – which is open to members onlyand invited speakers, guests and Press – attractstop management including CEOs, companyChairmen, company Board Members, econo-mists and many other key personnel of theworld’s steel industry.

This year, numbers totalled around 240.Since worldsteel represents around 170 steelproducers (including 17 of the world’s 20largest steel companies) accounting for around85% of world steel production, and also has asassociate members national and regional steelindustry associations, and steel research insti-tutes, the list of delegates came from a widespectrum of the industry.

Counting the countries represented as listed

Fig 1 Evolution of Brazil’s GDP 2007-2013Source: Brazilian Institute of Geography & Statistics

Fig 2 Apparent consumption of long products in Latin America 2005– 2018 (Augusto Espeschit ArcelorMittal Long Carbon Americas)

São Paulo is undergoing an infrastructure buildingfrenzy to transport its 19 million inhabitants

Pre-crisis

Mto

ns/y

ear

Crisis & recovery ForecastCAGR 8.2% CAGR 6.8% CAGR 4.6%

21.1 23.5 25.9 26.8 22.1 25.6 27.6 28.2 28.8 30.0 31.4 32.9 34.4 36.0

20182005 2007 2009 2011 2013 2015 2017

9.5%

6.1%

1Q20

07

4Q20

071Q

2008

4Q20

08

1Q20

09

4Q20

091Q

2010

4Q20

101Q

2011

4Q20

111Q

2012

4Q20

121Q

2013

4Q20

13

5.2%

-0.3%

7.5%

2.7%

0.90%

2.40%

7.5%

5.5%

3.5%

1.5%

-0.5%

-2.5%

-4.5%

Conference report

worldsteel_Layout 1 11/6/13 10:55 AM Page 1

Conference report

www.steeltimesint.com40 – November/December 2013 – Steel Times International

massive market with the government pledged tobuild one million houses a year – the first millionhaving been built and two million more con-tracted. The automotive sector including truckswas another important industry for Brazil whichrequires steel. The World Cup in Brazil nextyear and the Olympic games in 2016 alsooffered a boost for steel demand in the country.

A second keynote address was then deliveredby Albano Chagas Viera, CEO, VotorantimSiderurgia − a 1.1Mt/y capacity long productsproducer in Brazil − and Chairman of theBoard of the Brazil Steel Institute. He spoke onthe prospects for the Brazilian steel industry.

Construction provided the biggest markettonnage wise with 37.7% of steel use followedby Automotive (22.1%) and Capital goods

(19.7%). A variety of other industries account-ed for 20.5% of consumption (see box forBrazil’s steel statistics in 2012).

On the economic outlook for Brazil, GDPhas fallen during 2013 from around 3.35% inJanuary to 2.4% in October, but an upturn hasbeen experienced from a low of 2.18% inSeptember. Industrial production has shown asimilar trend with a steady decline from 3.5% inJanuary to a low of 2.0% in September followedby a slight upswing in October to 2.1%.Following the global financial crisis of 2008/9,Brazil had recovered strongly in 2010 with agrowth rate of 7.5% but then saw a steady fallto a low of 0.9% in Q2 2012, a return to 2.4%by Q2 2013 followed by a decline once more(Fig 1).

Brazilian steel in 2012

In 2012, Brazil produced 34.5Mt crude steelrepresenting 52.5% of Latin American pro-duction and 2.2% of world output ranking itthe 9th largest producing country. However,output was down 2% on the 35.2Mt recordoutput of 2011.

Output of rolled products in 2012 was25.696Mt of which flat products accountedfor 14.897Mt (58%) and long products10.799Mt. Semi products amounted to7.47Mt of which slabs accounted for 6.237Mt(83%) and 1.233Mt was as billet or bloom. Pigiron production reached 26.9Mt.

The dominant method of steel productionwas the integrated blast furnace – oxygensteelmaking route (BF-BOF) which produced25.96Mt (75.2%) and the electric arc furnace(EAF) 8.094Mt (23.4%). A further 468kt wasproduced in the Energy Optimising Furnace(EOF), a process now unique to Brazil. 97.3%of all crude steel (33.59Mt) was continuouslycast.

12 steel groups produce within Brazil oper-ating 29 plants in total, 14 integrated and 15minimills – the largest of which is Gerdau fol-lowed by Usiminas (Table 1).

The major steel producing regions are in thesouth-east of the country and account for 94%of output and occur in the districts of MinasGerais (11.780Mt in 2012), Rio de Janeiro(10.26Mt), São Paulo (5.607Mt) and EspiritoSanto (4.809Mt).

Domestic sales of flat products account for55.35% of the 20.909Mt rolled in 2012 anddomestic sales of long products took 84.10%of the 11.925Mt rolled that year.

Apparent steel consumption in 2012 was25.181Mt of which 13.818Mt was flat prod-ucts and 11.363Mt longs. Per capita con-sumption of steel in 2012 was 142.4kg per

person against a world average of 216.9kg,ranking Brazil 12th globally and below Chileand Mexico (214.2kg & 209.3kg respectively)in Latin America.

Exports of steel in 2012 amounted to9.805Mt valued at US$7.021M FOB. Brazilwas a net exporter in 2012 importing 3.784Mtvalued at US$4.542M FOB.

The steel industry in Brazil employed127370 people in 2012 of which 73322 weredirectly employed by steel companies and54084 were sub-contracted.

Capital investment in steel plant in 2012was US$3.18bn down on a peak ofUS$4.507bn in 2009. It has averaged $3.7bna year over the past decade.

Data from Instituto Aço Brasil

Gerdau 8.181 Long & Special

Usiminas 7.157 Flat

CSN 4.874 Flat

ArcelorMittal Tubarão 4.390 Flat

CSA 3.510 Slab

ArcelorMittal Aços Longos 3.423 Long

Votoranim Siderurgia 1.145 Long

Aperam 0.728 Flat

V & M do Brasil 0.511 Long & Special

Sinobras 0.319 Long

VSB 0.192 Long

Villares Metals 0.121 Long & Special

Total 34.524

Installed capacity 48.90

Average utilisation rate 70.5 %

Company Crude steel Main2012 (Mt) product

Table 1 Brazil’s steel producing groups

The share of manufacturing in GDP has alsodeclined from a peak of 35.9% in 1985 to13.3% in 2012. The rate of unemployment,however, has been reduced from 9.0% in 2009to 5.6% in July this year.

Inflation (CPI) remains above the govern-ment target of 4.3% reaching a recent peak of6.5% in 2011, dropping to 5.8% in 2012. Theforecast for 2013 is a rise again to 6.0% fol-lowed by a small decline to 5.8% in 2014.

Interest rates reached 9.0% in August, risingfrom 7.25% in October 2012, but are below the12.5% peak experienced in July 2011.

Brazil saw a positive trade balance ofUS$19M in 2012 but this is likely to be erodedto just $3bn this year but recover to $8bn next.The exchange rate has increased steadilyagainst the US$ dollar since May this year buthas fallen back since September to reach 2.24.

World steel consumption forecastfor 2013 & 14The World Steel Association released its ShortRange Outlook (SRO) for apparent steel con-sumption for 2013 and 2014 at the annualmeeting.

According to the forecast made in Octoberand April each year by worldsteel’s EconomicCommittee, global apparent steel use willincrease by 3.1% to 1475Mt in 2013 followinggrowth of 2.0% in 2012. In 2014, it is forecastthat world steel demand will grow further by3.3% to reach 1523Mt. However, excluding a6% growth forecast for China in 2013, growthin the rest of the world is forecast at just 0.7%.Details of the growths by region can be viewedat http://www.steeltimesint.com/news/view/world-steel-consumption-forecast-for-2013-14.

Long term sustainabilitySigurd Mareels, Director, McKinsey &Company painted a very bleak picture of thefinancial sustainability of the world’s steelindustry – but a picture that in subsequentcomments from industrial participants was farfrom accepted. Mr Mareels quoted an OECDreport published earlier in the year which statesthat the global steel industry has some 500Mtof excess capacity and used this as his basis forarguing a need for government intervention toclose obsolete capacity. However, those in theindustry point out that the 500Mt is an over-statement since on average yield from capacityis about 85% so reducing the figure to 425Mt.In addition, some of this so called overcapacityhad not operated for many years but simplyremains on the ‘books’ as existing capacity.Also, in an upturn in the market, spare capacitywas needed to be available to be brought onstream rapidly. The well respected steel marketanalyst Peter Marcus argued that market forceswould bring capacity in line with needs.

Mr Mareels measures financial sustainabilityin terms of the EBITDA margin and the slopeof the cost curve of production which he saidhad been flattened for steel producers since2007. In these terms, the steel industry in 2012is marginally below its position in 2002 and inthe least favourable position for all major met-als, copper being identified as the most prof-itable, even above gold. Aluminium fares a littlebetter than steel but is still weak.

MiningTrends for iron ore supply was the topic of thenext keynote address by José Carlos Martins,Exec Dir Ferrous & Strategy, Vale. Vale isBrazil’s major iron ore miner and also operates

Fig 3 The impactof light weightingmaterials on pro-duction of anequivalent auto-motive compo-nent from eachmaterialSourceWorldAutoSteel

Mild steel -

25

230

173

811

800

1575

kg CO2e

33

50

60

Potential weightSaving (%)

AHSS

Aluminium

Magnesium

Carbon FRP


Conference report

www.steeltimesint.com42 – November/December 2013 – Steel Times International

and Chairman of the Latin American SteelAssociation, Alacero gave an overview.

Alacero’s projections for growth in the majorLatin American countries are not strong, aver-aging 2.6% this year and 2.9% next (Table 2).

Mr Baptisa expressed particular concern overimports stressing that for each US$ one millionof goods imported between 64 to 46 jobs(depending on country) were lost in direct andindirect employment.

Despite sufficient installed capacity, outputdoes not meet demand in Latin America andhence the region has become a net importer ofsteel since 2010 (with a small exception in2011). In 2012, over 4Mt were imported to theregion. This is despite apparent steel use grow-ing at only 1.5% a year even although there wasgood potential to use more steel since percapa-ta use in the region is only 100.7kg compared toa world average of 216.9kg. (See this issueLatin America Update for a detailed analysis ofsteel intensity in Latin America – which, withthe exception of Mexico – is below the worldaverage). Mr Baptisa put this deficiency downto poor education, poor infrastructure anddeindustrialisation.

In conclusion, he said Latin America as aregion was undergoing difficult times and anyprosperity was a result of exporting raw materi-als (and so eventually will end).

Other panel members were Jefferson dePaula, CEO ArcelorMittal Long CarbonAmericas who pointed out that Latin Americahas a population of over 690M and that overhalf (52%) live either in Brazil or Mexico. Ofthis total regional population 76.6% were mid-dle or upper class, thereby offering a strongdomestic market.

André Johannpeter, President & CEO

Gerdau and Daniel Novegil, CEO Terniummade up the remainder of the panellists. MrJohannpeter’s comments have already beenreported in the opening remarks, and again hestressed the high tax burden (35% of GDP – vizIndia 11% and China 10%) and deindustrialisa-tion as major factors slowing the country’sgrowth. But despite these negatives he sees mod-est growth prospects in Brazil, and that the steelindustry has sufficient capacity not to have toimport. The key factors to greater domestic sup-ply are: A higher investment rate; Fair trade andan improvement of industrial competitiveness.

Daniel Novegil pointed out that LatinAmerica accounted for 8% of total world GDPcompared with 11.5% for China which has dou-ble the population. India’s contribution toworld GDP is just 1.5% despite its populationbeing similar to that of China. In terms of GDPvalue per capita, Latin America is highest ofthese three at US$9.6k viz China’s $6.1k andIndia’s $1.5k.

The day concluded with dinner at theLeopolldo Itaim House with music provided bythe Bachiana Philharmonic musicians led by thefounder, João Carlos Martins on the piano.

Steel Clients’ viewDay two commenced with a panel on globalmagatrends to 2020 and beyond moderated byPaolo Rocca, Chairman & CEO Techint Group.Panellists consisted of Brazilian clients of thesteel industry and were Cledorvino Belini,CEO Fiat Group Latin America, Ms Maria dasGraças Silva Foster, CEO Petrobras, MarceloOdebrecht, CEO of construction company,Odebrecht and Harry Schmelzer Jr, CEO Weg,one of the world’s largest producers of industri-al motors and related electrical equipment.

Cledorvino Belini of Fiat said that hot stamp-ing of high strength and advanced high strengthsteel was being increasingly used in automobilemanufacture as a means of reducing weight byusing thinner gauge but stronger steels. Heaccepted aluminium was used in some vehiclecomponents and in the high-end range of carsbut it was both too expensive and the price toovolatile for extensive use in mass producedvehicles. On future developments, he expects‘nano steels’ to be available after 10 years or soand also sees potential in the use of graphine.During questions, he said Fiat used Life CycleAnalysis when selecting materials.

Harry Schmelzer of WEG said globallydemand for its industrial motors and relatedproducts has grown 19% in two years but not inBrazil where the market remained flat. Thecompany uses 250kt/y of finished steel productsin particular value added products such as Sisteels for motor and transformer laminations.While demand for electric and hybrid cars wasgrowing elsewhere, in Brazil demand was low(the country does use a high proportion ofethanol for its motor fuel thereby mitigating themotorist’s carbon footprint).

Marcelo Odebrecht who runs a constructioncompany, mainly operating in Latin Americaand Africa, stressed the importance of keepingthe price of steel constant during the durationof a build. He also noted an increase in thebuild of steel framed structures in Brazil, acountry where concrete had formerly dominat-ed. High labour costs were driving this trend.

Maria das Graças Silva Foster, CEOPetrobras complained of delays in getting proj-ects going in the country and permits wereoften tied to a guarantee to use locally pro-duced material. In addition to being a major

various mineral, coal and non-ferrous mines inmore than 30 countries worldwide. In 2013production capacity was 306Mt and it plans togrow this 50% to 450Mt in the next five years.Quality will also me improved with Fe>66%,SiO2 and Al2O3 both below 2% and P below0.04% by 2018. (No mention of water contentwas made which has been a complaint fromsteelmakers in recent years – but plans to usedry classification should improve this).

Global steel demand governs the demand foriron ore. Steel demand is forecast to grow 21%by the end of the decade, mainly driven by Asiaand the developing economies.

Ore price volatility has reduced since increas-ing the frequency of pricing contracts and MrMartins does not expect prices to fall below$100/t (for 62%Fe) since 30% of miners arehigher than this on the cost curve for mining.

In Brazil, Vale is currently investing US$34bnto 2018 in iron ore and related logistics projects.In all, 10 iron ore and three logistics projectshave been approved to grow output by 144Mt.

The largest of these projects is the CarajásS11D mine development which is now 45%completed. Located in the NE of the countrytotal capex allocated is US$19.67bn of whichUS$8.09 is invested in the mine and equipmentand US$11.58bn on logistics infrastructure.The open pit mine is partly located in theCarajás National Forest but less than 3% of thiswill be given up to the mine. Indeed, Vale isputting resources into protecting this and sur-rounding forests such as the introduction ofsatellite imaging for fire detection which willenable fire fighters to rapidly respond to anyoccurrence of fire. A 504km railway is underconstruction to link the mine with the port ofSão Luis where the Ponta da Madeira ore ter-minal is being expanded. In addition, 226km ofexisting railway are being upgraded and anoth-er 101km of new line is being constructed tolink with the existing Pará railway. The regionalready produced 106.8Mt ore in 2012 but theproject expansion will lead to even greater out-put as well as the upgrading of the ore to reducethe silica and alumina content. Measures toprotect the environment have been foremostand the mine and processing plant are targetedto reduce water consumption by 93%, lower theuse of diesel by 77%, reduce electricity con-sumption by 18 000MW and lower GHG emis-sions by 50%. Completion is planned for 2016and by 2018 capacity is forecast at 230Mt/y.30000 new jobs will be created in the states ofPará and Maranhão during the constructionphase and 3600 long term jobs during opera-tion. One technical innovation is that the openpit will be ‘truckless’ with ore broken within thepit using mobile crushers and the iron richmaterial transported to the concentrator by37km of conveyors. This will remove the needfor 100 off-road trucks saving 77% of fuel aswell as preventing the creation of waste materi-als such as used oil and worn tyres. Anotherinnovation is the use of ‘dry’ screening in whichthe existing moisture in the ore is utilised ratherthan adding water which will remove the needfor hydrocyclones, thickeners and tailing dams.

Mr Martins concluded by saying that becausedeveloping such mines was a long term projectsome excess production capacity was likely tobe generated which should reduce the volatilityin the price of ore although he expected it notto fall below US$100 per tonne.

A panel session followed on the current LatinAmerican industrial situation. Benjamin MárioBaptisa President & CEO ArcelorMittal Brasil

Argentina 1.9 2.3 1.3

Brazil 0.9 2.2 2.5

Chile 5.5 4.5 4.7

Colombia 4.1 4.0 4.0

Mexico 3.9 2.8 3.3

Peru 6.4 5.5 5.2

Venezuela 5.6 0.4 2.9

Latin America 2.5 2.6 2.9

Source: Alacero

Country 2012 2013 2014

Table 2 Actual and forecast annual growthfor major Latin American countries

High rise office blocks dominate the city –Brazil’s business capital


Conference report

44 – November/December 2013 – Steel Times International www.steeltimesint.com

ities, with a number of steel companies havingachieved 100% steel plants certification. Thecurrent worldsteel sustainability report can bedownloaded from www.worldsteel.org/publica-tions/bookshop?bookID=4d9d919a-852d-4d32-a74a-3e48e0cb82d9

Latin America lacks innovationInnovation for sustainable competitiveness wasthat of Julian Alberto Eguren, CEO Usiminas.

He pointed out that Latin America was stillin need of engineering and technology, as theseare the pillars of economic growth. For every10 000 inhabitants, Korea has 16 engineers,China 13 and Latin America a maximum of 5.

In Brazil, only 7% of the population between25 and 34 years of age has a university degree.The average of developing countries is 13%.

While Brazil, Mexico and Argentina areranked the 6th, 14th and 25th economies in theworld, they are not in the top 40 countries forpatent registrations.

Emissions tradingClimate Change policy developments were thetopic of Dr Paul Brooks, Group DirectorEnvironment, Tata Steel Europe and Chairmanworldsteel Environment Committee.

The EU Emissions Trading System is beingtightened, with significantly reduced levels offree allocations in Phase 3 (2013-2020 inclu-sive). Allocations are based on theoretical (bet-ter than best performer) benchmarks. A crosssectoral correction factor for all sectors is to beintroduced, irrespective of the level of exposureto international competition. There are alsonew restrictions on the use of the clean devel-opment mechanism and credits. The EU alsohas the highest reduction target of 19.5% by2015 from a base level at 2007-10.

Elsewhere, Australia has introduced a com-pulsory nationwide emissions trading system,but this may be short lived with the newGovernment as the prime Minister is a globalwarming sceptic. Australia has free allocationsfor sectors which may otherwise go abroad (car-bon leakage). The targets are also modest at1.3% by 2015 rising to 7.6% by 2020.

South Korea will introduce a compulsoryemissions trading system from 2015 which willinclude free allocations for the steel industry.Targets are also modest at 0-2.1% from 2015and 3-9.3% from 2020.

Participation in emissions trading systems in

Japan is voluntary.There are no emissions trading systems

planned in Russia.India has introduced Perform, Achieve &

Trade (PAT); an energy efficiency based tradingsystem. There are sectoral site specific reduc-tion targets based on the potential for improve-ment with a 5.86% reduction in overall energyconsumption targeted. There is no cap.

Pilot regional emissions trading systems arebeing implemented in China and Brazil, but thedetails are not yet clear.

Regional initiatives in the USA do not involvethe steel industry.

Thus, despite some new initiatives, there isno sign nor likelihood of any international emis-sions trading structure that could lead to a levelplaying field for the steel industry.

Other pollutants addressed were particulateemissions to air with a focus on reducing thefraction of <PM2.5 emissions; hazardous sub-stances with mercury given particular attention;better use of resources – water, ‘waste’ (by-products) and soil and environmental benefitsderived from products such as light weightingwith advanced high strength steels, or improv-ing power generating efficiency throughincreased steam temperature by developingbetter creep resistant steels.

Life Cycle AnalysisA Global approach to Life Cycle Analysis wasaddressed by Louis Brimacombe, Head ofEnvironmental Technology, Tata Steel Europeand Vice Chairman worldsteel LCA ExpertGroup.

Fig 3 illustrates the potential weight savingsachievable to make an equivalent componentfor an automobile compared with the CO2equivalent emissions to produce the compo-nent when a LCA is applied. The footprint ofaluminium is 4.68 times greater than that of anadvanced high strength steel (AHSS) and even3.5 times greater than using mild steel. The fac-tors are even greater if magnesium or carbonfibre are considered.

Maintenance savingsA worldsteel Maintenance & Reliability reportwas summarised by Andrew Behn, SteelMaintenance Network Leader, BlueScopeSteel and Chairman of the worldsteelMaintenance & Reliability project. By bench-marking against the best performers a 10%reduction in maintenance costs is possible bythe average performer.

Moscow in 2014The meeting concluded with an invitation byretiring worldsteel chairman, AlexeyMordashov to attend the 2014 annual meetingwhich will be held in Moscow 6-7 October. Thenew chairman of worldsteel for a year from 9October is Joon-Yang Chung Chairman & CEOof Posco. The full list of Officers and BoardMembers can be viewed atwww.steeltimesint.com/news/view/world-steel-association-elects-new-officers1

The third day saw optional visits to one ofthree plant tours on offer: ArcelorMittalPiracicaba, a minimill producing rebars;Gerdau Araçariguama, Gerdau’s newest min-imill plant inaugurated in 2006 producingrebar, and Usiminas, Cubatão, one of LatinAmerica’s largest integrated steelworks of4.5Mt/y capacity producing flat products withthe visit to its new hot strip mill which startedup in October 2012.

user of steel for pipes and drilling equipment,Petrobras also extensively used plastic pipes.

Reserves of oil and gas in Brazil were signifi-cant and should serve the country for years tocome.

Global EconomyThe panel was followed by a session on theGlobal economy in which Eduardo Giannettida Fonseca gave a keynote address. A panelmoderated by Wolfgang Eder, CEO voestalpineand Chairman Eurofer consisted of EijiHayashida, president & CEO JFE Steel, JohnSurman, retiring Chairman & CEO US Steeland Sajjan Jindal, Chairman and MD JSW.

Health & SafetyThe afternoon session moderated by AndrewPage Director H&S Tata Steel Europe andChairman of worldsteel Safety & HealthCommittee presented the Safety and Healthawards. For the first time, the average lost timeinjuries in the steel industry surpassed that ofthe aluminium industry reaching a record lowof 1.65 injuries per million hours worked com-pared to that of the aluminium industry of 1.8,but the target is to better the rate for the oil &gas sector of 0.43. Details of the awards are onthe Steel Times International website athttp://www.steeltimesint.com/news/view/safety-health-excellence-recognition-2013

In this session, Paolo Rocca, gave a frankaccount of an accident that took place at theirGuerrero facility in Monterrey, Mexico on 22July in which 11 workers died and a further fourwere injured as a result of a hydrogen gas explo-sion during maintenance on the DRI intake ofthe EAF. The accident was put down partly toequipment failure and partly human error andMr Rocca’s account of the accident and thecompany’s immediate assistance to the familiesof those injured without prejudice should betaken as an example to all in the industry thatsharing such mistakes can avoid future repeti-tion. Indeed, this has not been the only fatalaccident in steel during the year with Baosteeland others suffering fatalities.

Not new technologyThe final session of the meeting was theTechnology panel moderated by Hank Reimink,Director Safety, Technology and Environment,worldsteel. Each panellist addressed a particu-lar topic:

Sustainability indicatorsworldsteel has recently published ‘SustainableSteel: Policy and indicators 2013’ which com-piles data from 2003 to 2012 for eight indica-tors and shows performance trends of eachindicator. Overall, the steel industry hasimproved most of its indicators.

For environmental performance, the averagevalues of CO2 and energy consumptionremained relatively stable from 2005 to 2011.CO2 emission decreased from 1.8 tonne CO2/tcrude steel in 2005 to 1.7t in 2011 as measuredas an average for the whole industry integratedand EAF mills. Energy intensity decreased from22.9GJ/tonne crude steel cast to 19.6GJ in thesame period. The material efficiency indicatoralso remained relatively stable above 96% ofmaterial converted to products and by-productsbetween 2003 and 2012 except in 2011. Theenvironmental management systems indicatorshows overall an increasing trend between 2005and 2012 from 84.0 to 89.3% of employees andcontractors in EMS-registered production facil-

Every building over 1000m2 must have awork of art by a local artist at its entrance



History

book review

SVEN Rinman was one of the greatest men inmining and metallurgy of all times. He pos-sessed curiosity, carried out his own, systematicresearch, gathered practical experience –including from others − and was able to imple-ment his ideas in industry. He held top posi-tions in the Swedish industrial and academicworld, which was among the leading in Europe.

His list of publications is very impressive andincluded: ‘Anledninger till kunskap om den grövrejern-och stålförädlingen’ (1772), ‘Försök till jär-nets historia med tillämpning för slögder och hand-verkare’ (1782), ‘Bergwerkslexicon’ (1788-89)and ‘Afhandling rörande mechaniquen’ (togetherwith E Nordwall) (1794-1800). A total of sever-al thousand pages.

It is proper in the present context to focus onhis contributions as a scientist, eagerly seekingan understanding of the many-sided propertiesof iron and steel, including extraction from ironores. He grew up with the Phlogiston theory,which is associated with the German chemistsJJ Becher and GE Stahl. Above all the theorywas an attempt to explain the phenomena ofcombustion at a time when air was consideredto be a pure substance. At that time oxidationwas considered to be a result of a loss in ‘phlo-giston’ and reduction a gain in phlogiston. Stahlclaimed that phlogiston was weightless matter.Some others even claimed that phlogiston hadnegative weight. In his dictionary from 1788


Sven Rinman (1720-1792) – The father of Swedish mining and metallurgy

e-mail [email protected]

By Arne Espelund

Medal showing Sven Rinman (1720-1792) inprofile. From Bergwerkslexicon 1788

FOR the best part of forty years the author,Professor Espelund has been making significantcontributions to the study of bloomery iron pro-duction. This book is a summary of his workand presents a number of recent results. As itsays on the cover, it is about bloomery ironworking in Norway.

It explains some of the secrets and provides agood overview of the available research. Thebook also makes a short foray into the historyand technology of recent industrial iron pro-duction in Norway. However, the main reader-ship will include archaeologists, bloomeryexperimentalists and people interested in his-torical metallurgy.

The chapters (with the exception of the last)are thematically linked by the idea thatbloomery archaeology makes little sense if it isnot illuminated by the insights that metallur-gists can provide. This theme is not laboured,but the author has made the point very strong-ly elsewhere:

He chooses example after example to showthat excavation alone is not enough, and, byand large, makes the underpinning metallurgyclear and accessible. More generally there is a

thoroughgoing commitment to scientificmethod in bloomery studies and an insistenceon reproducibility as the hallmark of validbloomery experimentation. The flip-side of thisbelief in modern science is a tremendous admi-ration for ancient technologists. This admira-tion is shared by most experimenters who havetried, and usually failed, to match the success ofearly iron makers. The author has a wide knowl-edge of Norse literary sources and uses this toprovide insights into mediaeval iron produc-tion. But there is no hint of cultural relativismin his analysis.

The book provides a typology of Norwegianbloomeries, separating four main types corre-sponding to the early iron age (types 1a and1b), Viking and mediaeval.

There is at least one aspect of this bookwhere the ‘secrets’ in its title are not revealed.Espelund asserts, citing archaeological evi-dence, that the early iron-age furnaces couldhave used dry pine wood and induced draught.He cites examples where pine wood was select-ed in preference to birch, correctly arguing thatthe resin in the pine wood increases its calorificvalue. He introduces the concept of a flame

induced draught. The book is well made and nicely presented.

The text suffers from the fact the author com-bines his roles of author, translator, publisherand editor. As a result there are many smalltypos/spelling mistakes and the English isquirky. However, with one single exception (pp234-5) the meaning of every sentence is crystalclear. A number of the figures retain theNorwegian language labelling of their originals,which is unhelpful, but there are 171 informa-tive illustrations and photographs and 48 tablesmainly of chemical and physical properties.There is an Index of subjects and place names.

Review by J Prus (Wealden Iron ResearchGroup)

‘The evidence and the secrets of ancientbloomery ironworking in Norway – with anextension to the beginning of the industrialperiod’ by Arne Espelund Arketype Pub byArketype forlag Trondheim (2013) ISBN 978-82-996953-3-6 Hardback 319 pages 171 illus-trations Price £35-00

Books can be ordered via www.arketype.noof direct from the author [email protected] �

The evidence and the secrets of ancient bloomery ironworking in Norway

Rinman defines phlogiston in 1½ pages, com-mencing:

Phlogiston kallas uti mineralriket, efter etinskränkt begrepp, ……………… växtriket.

Which translates in full as:‘Phlogiston is the name given in the inorganic

world to a fine combustible matter, which in allmetals is an important part, and can be removedfrom the less noble metals and half-metals by theheat of calcination and again be added by (s)melt-ing together with combustible matter from theorganic world.’

Rinman was seeking basic information bymeans of his own experiments and also in cor-respondence with the chemist Carl WilhelmScheele (1742-86), one of the three discoverersof oxygen as part of air. The others were theEnglishman Joseph Priestley (1733-1804) andthe Frenchman A L Lavoisier (1743-94).

In his search for an understanding Rinmancast a rod of pig iron and cooled one end quick-ly. The fracture showed white cast iron, theother end grey cast iron. By dissolution in dif-ferent acids he noticed evolution of an inflam-mable gas. The residue from the white ironweighed 1.5% of the original white iron weighttreated and reacted like silica, while the residuefrom the grey iron weighed 2.75% of the origi-nal grey iron weight and behaved like ‘blyerts’,also named plumbago, which was used for writ-ing and is known to us as galena or PbS. He

even mixed the residue with saltpetre and det-onated it, without realising that the black pow-der was graphite! (In modern Swedish a pencilis named blyertspenna, in German Bleistift).

He observed in the blast furnace that the ironcreated on the surface of half reduced ore, ie inthe presence of FeO was ductile.

He refers also to experiments by the leadingsmelter (öfwermasmästare) JC Gurney, who wasexperiencing difficulties in a blast furnace witha certain ore from Dalsland. He built abloomery furnace − apparently using tradition-al methods − and used the Dalsland ore withsuccess.

He experienced that mild steel could beobtained by using bog iron ore while a rock orecontaining MnO gave an excellent steel, suitedfor cutting edges. To-day’s metallurgists usethermodynamic reasoning to show that replac-ing the FeO in the slag with MnO will result insteel, rather than soft iron.

The path to an understanding of the role ofcarbon in steel was indirect: via the discovery ofoxygen as a constituent of air. In the 1790s thisbecame a reality in the world of educated met-allurgists − but Lavoisier was beheaded in1794 during the French Revolution: the revolu-tion, it seems, did not need scientists! �

HISTORY nov_Layout 1 11/6/13 8:23 AM Page 1

ANALYSIS & TESTINGExperimental assessment for the characterisation

of think slab casting mould flux Jan/Feb 20The recovery of ferro-alloy fines

by melting in an induction furnace Jan/Feb 25PANalytical becomes distributor

of OBLF OES Jan/Feb 26Rapid ore, sinter and steel analysis

by X-Ray diffraction October 16

AUTOMATIONCentralised PLC operation of

Reheating Furnace charging mechanismat Durgapur Steel, India May/June 23

Dedicated warehouse management in the metals industry May/June 26

Press Hardened sheet for automotive components May/June 26

AUTOMOTIVELight weighting key to US automotive future

October 25

CHINA UPDATEChina’s ore producers seek tax relief

to combat imports Jan/Feb 10Steep decline of scrap use is pushing ore

imports to record high March 16China’s smogs focus attention on steel April 14Why adoption of high-strength rebar

in China has been postponed May/June 12Chinese exports up 19% in first

quarter 2013 May/June 12Steel prices heated in the hot

summer months Sept 13Little impact on ending scrap

import permit October 10Over capacity crisis hits value

added steels Nov/Dec 16

COATING Hardide Coatings solves hardchrome

plating problem Nov/DecHardide Coatings to unveil diamonds

coating Nov/DecLCA shows steel utility poles better

than wood Nov/Dec 34

COMPANY PROFILEMarcegaglia –

Europe’s largest steel processor March 49Interpipe manages a new concept

of steelmaking in Ukraine May/June 36

CONFERENCE REPORTSAlacero 2012:

Waiting for a better future Jan/Feb 27CRU’s 6th North American

Steel Conference Jan/Feb 30Steel returns to Paris –

30th International event March 36Steel Success Strategies – Turkey March 43CRU – 19th World Steel Conference April 55Met Coke World Summit 2012 April 59Russian and CIS Industrial

Metals Summit in Moscow May/June 28AISTech 2013 –

A report on the annual event July/Aug 32Eurocoke Summit 2013 July/Aug 37SSS28 –

Some bright spots amidst the gloom Sept 44worldsteel - 47 Sao Paulo Nov/Dec 36

CONTINUOUS CASTINGSolidification during continuous casting March 19Laser management aids caster roll alignmentMarch 22Improving thermo-mechanical rigidity of caster rolls (web feature) May/June 35

Optimising life cycle costs of caster rolls March 24Improving thermo-mechanical rigidity

of caster rolls in continuous casting machines May/June 35

Experience with pouring simulation in three French steel mills October 39

DRI Midrex forecast 200Mt DRI by 2025-30 Jul/Aug 31Iron ore & DRI - An old & new conference topic (web feature) Sept 41

ELECTRIC STEELMAKINGOxygen steelmaking practices in non-conventional EAF operations April 49BSE –

Excellence in Steelmaking 2.0 October 21How changes in scrap mix affect

Consteel charging of an EAF(web feature) Nov/Dec 29

ENVIRONMENTThe Chinese scrap resource balance April 19Recycling of scrap in China -

An interview with China Metal Recycling April 22A model for energy saving

in the Chinese steel industry April 24 Top gas recycling blast furnace

for low CO2 ironmaking – final results of ULCOS trials April 26

Efforts at SAIL to conserve electrical energy April 31

Turning steelmaking off-gases into marketable commodities April 39

CSP flex – An innovative concept for expanding the market portfolio April 40

UK’s carbon capture & storage projectsstill away go-ahead April 45

Adopting energy efficiency in the steelre-rolling sector in India October 21

FURNACESHigh temperature ladle heating system

for Bokaro Steel Plant March 27Leak detection of furnace water cooling March 32

HANDLINGUS network of river and coastal ports Jan/Feb 12ITL integrating transport and logistics

in the USA Jan/Feb 14Improved power collector for wing

trippers in raw material handling plant Jan/Feb 16New vehicle combination speeds up

material flow and lowers operating costs Jan/Feb 19

HISTORYHenry Besssemer 200 years sincehis birth Jan/Feb 36Ribbon of Fire – how Europe adopted

and developed US strip mill technology(1920-2000) March 52

Steel: A Century of Steelmaking on Film April 64The grocer who became an ironfounder

to keep the chapel warm May/June 40One hundred years of stainless steel July/Aug 4450th Anniversary conference

of the Historical Metallurgy Society Sept 48Foraging for ancient, rusty iron:

A delightful pursuit October 40Sven Rinman (1720-1792) - The fatherof Swedish mining and metallurgy Nov/Dec 42

INDIASteel growth slows as industry flops

in FY H1 Jan/Feb 9Dismal manufacturing retards

steel growth Jul/Aug 16

Import duty on steel scrap to hit Indianrecycling sector Sept 42

Steel FDI into India suffers but thedomestic juggernaut rolls on October 28

IRONMAKINGIron ore and DRI –

An old and new conference topic Sept 41HBI – Growing in demand

for a blast furnace charge October 13ICSTI-12 International ironmaking conference (web feature) March 48

JAPAN UPDATEJapan’s new policy boosts wages

in attempt to remove deflation April 16Africa, opportunity & partnership

for Japan Jul/Aug 15A positively changing economic

scene in Japan Nov/Dec 14

KNOW YOUR STEELThe Basics of Iron and Steelmaking

– Part 7 Sustainability Jan/Feb 34

LA UPDATEPredicting the Latin American steel

market in 2013 Jan/Feb 8Brazilian steel’s sustainability

performance March14Paraguay’s steel crisis as sole plant idled April 12Brazil’s charcoal integrated mills May/June 10What next for Mexico’s Deacero

minimills? Jul/Aug 12An overview of the Brazilian scrap market Sept 12Momentum builds against Chinese

steel exports to Mexico October 8Latin America steel intensity Nov/Dec 12

MARKETSClean steel – High performance

with reduced environmental impact May/June 14Demand for ICTG to develop

USA shales May/June 17Deep-drawing perforated metal May/June 20Steel eliminates weight gap with

aluminium car bodies May/June 22Platts Steel Markets Europe 2013 July/Aug 40

Off-shore wind farms:Opportunities and challenges for the steel industry October 36

MEASUREMENTRotating in-line laser for dimension

measurement March 31

MINIMILLSUS minimills moving upstream Nov/Dec 19Off-gas heat recovery for electric arc

furnaces Nov/Dec 23How the scrap affects Consteel

charging (web feature) Nov/Dec 29

OXYGEN STEELMAKINGSixty years of oxygen steelmaking Jul/Aug 19

REFRACTORIESImproved insulating linings

for furnaces May/June 39

ROLLINGBi-Support rolling stands

for long product mills Sept 15Advantages and risks of retrofitting

cold rolling mills Sept 18Monitoring cobble detection by camera

and its analysis for a merchant rolling mill Sept 20


INDEX 2013


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AK Aich May/June 23PA Aneesh Jan/Feb 16, May/June 23, Sept 20SA Balaji Jan/Feb 16I Banerjee April 31D Barrington May/June 39SK Bhagat May/June 23SK Bhaumik Jan/Feb 16B Bhowmik April 31, Sept 20C Bilgen April 40P Blostein April 49Dr I W Burgmann July/Aug 24, Nov/Dec 30A Chatterjee Jan/Feb 20S Chaudhuri Jan/Feb 16RR Choudhary April 31TK Dutta Jan/Feb 16S Dutta Sept 20M O Elbealy web feature May/JuneN Eklund April 26G Enickl Nov/Dec 23Dr R Eriksson Sept 24A Espelund Nov/Dec 42S Ghaswalla Oct 28BN Ghosh April 31S Ghosh Jan/Feb 20MGK Grant April 49Dr A Grosse Sept 24INP Gupta March 27SK Gupta Jan/Feb 20T Gustafson Nov/Dec 30A Gurov May/June 28F Habashi Jan/Feb 36, July/Aug 44M Haider Nov/Dec 23P Hirel April 49Dr U A Hirsch April 26H Hodson May/June 40

J Holmgren April 39A C Horn Nov/Dec 23S Ilangovan April 31, May/June 23N Iwase April 16, July/Aug 15, Nov/Dec 14DK Jain Oct 21DK Jha Sept 42J AT Jones Nov/Dec 29C Kaufman April 49T Kay Jan/Feb 14YK Khanna Jan/Feb 25G Krupavaram Jan/Feb 16KK Keshari Jan/Feb 25C Klein April 40C Klinkenberg April 40S Kumar Jan/Feb 25V Kumar May/June 23S Lili Jan/Feb 10, March 16,

April 14, May/June 12, July/Aug 14,Sept 13, Oct 10, Nov/Dec 16

K Libera Sept 24I G Louwerse April 26A McEwen Oct 40S Majumdar May/June 23M Mehta Jan/Feb 7, March 12, April 10,

May/June 8, July/Aug 10,Sept 10, Sept 44, Oct 6, Nov/Dec 10

F Memoli Nov/Dec 29G Mendes de Paula Jan/Feb 8, Jan/Feb 27,

March 14, April 12, May/June 10,July/Aug 12, Sept 12, Oct 8, Nov/Dec 12

A Meyer April 40H Mueller Jan/Feb 30, Sept 36J Mueller April 40A Mukherjee Oct 32M Michele-Naussed Nov/Dec 23

AC Nigam Jan/Feb 16P Olund May/June 14Dr A Opfermann Sept 24M Peredy March 27F Picciolo Nov/Dec 29M Pinkham Jan/Feb 12, May/June 17, Oct 25

Nov/Dec 19J J Poveromo (web) Sept, (web) March, April 59N Pradhan Jan/Feb 20O Prakash April 49A Prasad May/June 23BA Prasad May/June 23BK Prasad May/June 23J Prasad Jan/Feb 20T Puranik Jan/Feb 16SK Ray Jan/Feb 16TS Reddy Oct 21J Roetter Jan/Feb 14S Roy Jan/Feb 25M Sen March 27S Sengupta Jan/Feb 9, July/Aug 16D Sert April 26AP Singh March 27S Singh April 31, May/June 23T Smith March 43, March 52, July/Aug 19,

July/Aug 40, Sept 48, Oct 21SN Srinivas Oct 32T Steinparzer Nov/Dec 23KK Thakur May/June 23AK Verma Jan/Feb 16I J van der Stel April 26K Vollrath Oct 39K Walker Jan/Feb 34, March 19, Sept 32F Zauner Nov/Dec 23Dr Qi- Zhang April 24


INDEX 2013

AUTHORS

For feature articles on the web visit www.steeltimesint.com and click on ‘features’

SAFETY AND TRAININGIntegrated security software

protects assets October 19The AMRC Training Centre October 19

Konecranes establishes dedicted UK training centre October 20

LEEA’s offer to overhead lifting with cranes October 20

SERVICESImproved supply of cooling water

to Outokumpu AvestaPolarit May/June 38

STAINLESS AND SPECIAL STEELSStainless steel forum ventures

into strategic minerals May/June 33Industrial application of chemical energy

for special steel grades and processes Sept 24

A technical overview of stainless steel Sept 3217th International Stainless

Steel Forum – New Orleans Sept 36

STEEL PROCESSINGFast tooling change for Chinese slitter July/Aug 31

USA UPDATEKeith Busse voices sentiments on US steel/

Gloomy clouds over steel industry/AISIsay China is a currency manipulator/DiMicco hangs up his boots Jan/Feb 7

Steel industry calls Obama’s State of Union speech a ‘Mixed Bag’ March 12

US steelmakers concerned over steelimports and gas exports April 10

US Steel posts Q1 losses amid declining prices May/June 8

Sparks of life improve utilisation July/Aug 10Pressure grows on US administrationto curb

dumping and currency manipulation Sept 10A Pyrrhic victory for US steelmakers

against foreign steel suppliers October 6Port Authorities buckle over use

of Chinese steel/Tepid recovery/Shale gas Nov/Dec 10

VACUUM PUMP DEGASSINGLatest developments in mechanical

vacuum pumps for steel degassing Jul/Aug 24Vacuum pump systems

for steel degassing Nov/Dec 30

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news minimills coating conference report ......steel times international – november/december 2013...

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