The White Book of Stee-evolucion Historica

8/12/2019 The White Book of Stee-evolucion Historica

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The white book of


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The white book of steel


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Steel before the 18thcentury 6

Amazing stee l18thto 19thcenturies 12

Revolution!20thcentury global expansion, 1900-1970s 20

Steel ageEnd of 20thcentury, start of 21st 32

Going for growth: Innovation of scaleSteel industry today & future developments 44

Sustainable steel

Glossary 48

Website 50

CONTENTS

worldsteel represents approximately 170 steel producers (including 17 of the worlds 20 largest steel companies),national and regional steel industry associations and steel research institutes. worldsteel members represent

around 85% of world steel production. worldsteel acts as the focal point for the steel industry, providing globalleadership on all major strategic issues affecting the industry, particularly focusing on economic, environmentaland social sustainability.

worldsteel has taken all possible steps to check and confir m the facts contained in this book however, someelements will inevitably be open to interpretation. worldsteel does not accept any liability for the accuracy of data,information, opinions or for any printing errors.

Te white book of steel World Steel Association 2012ISBN 978-2-930069-67-8

Design by double-id.comCopywriting by Pyramidion.be

Tis publication is pri nted on MultiDesign pap er.MultiDesign is certified by the Forestry Stewardship Council as environmentally-responsible paper. Please refer to the glossary section on page 48 to find the definition of the words highlighted in bluethroughout the book.


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Amazing steel

Steel is one of the worlds most essential materials.It is fundamental to every aspect of our lives, from

infrastructure and transport to the humble tin-

plated steel can that preserves food. With steel, we

can create huge buildings or t iny parts for precision

instruments. It is strong, versatile a nd infinitely

recyclable.

Te rise of ste el began w ith the 19 thcenturyIndustrial Revolution in Europe and North America.

Yet steelmaki ng isnt new. Mast er craf tsmenin ancient China and India were skilled in itsproduction. However, it is only in the past 200

years t hat science has revea led the sec rets of thi sremarkable material.

oday, steelmakers kn ow how to combine t he exactmix of iron, a small percentage of carbon and othertrace elements to produce hundreds of ty pes of steel.

Tese are t hen rolled, a nnealed a nd coated to del ivertailor-made properties for innumerable applications.

Tis book tr aces major m ilestones i n the histor yof steel, highlighting some of the many inventors,entrepreneurs and companies that have shaped itsdevelopment.

Steel has an exciting past and an even more excitingfuture. Steelmakers continue to reduce the energyrequired to make steel. Modern high-strength steelsprovide more strength with less weight, helpingreduce the emissions of carbon dioxide of end-products such as cars. And because steel can be soeasily recycled, supplies will remain abundant forgenerations to come.

A happy discovery

Te industr ialisat ion of steel produc tion in t he 19thcentury has helped build our modern world, but theorigins of steelmaking go back t housands of years.

STEEL BEFORE THE 18THCENTURY

Ever since our ancestors started to mine and smeltiron, they began producing steel.

More than 4,000 years ago, people in Egypt andMesopotamia discovered meteoric iron and used thisgift of the gods as decoration. But it was another2,000 years before people began producing iron frommined iron ore. Te earliest finds of smelted iron inIndia date back to 1800 Before Common Era (BCE).

Te Hittit es of Anatol ia began smelting i ron around1500 BCE. When t heir empire collapsed around1200 BCE, the various t ribes took the knowledge ofironmaking with them, spreading it across Europeand Asia. Te Iron Age had begun.

However, iron is not steel. Iron Age metal workersalmost certainly discovered steel as an accidentalby-product of their ironworking activities. Teseearly smiths heated iron ore in charcoal fires, whichproduced a relatively pure spongy mass of iron calleda bloom that could then be hammered (wrought)into shape.

Tese early sm iths would ha ve noticed t hat when ironwas left in the char coal fu rnaces for a longer per iod,it changed. It became harder and stronger: qualitiesthey undoubtedly recognised as valuable. Tey wouldalso have noticed that these qualities improved withrepeated heating, folding and beating of the materialas they forged the metal.

The East India Comp anys port in Bo mbay, India in the 18thcentury

Detail of India from Ptolemys world map. Iron was first found in meteorites (gift of the gods) then thousands

of years later was developed into steel, the discovery of which helped shape the ancient (and modern) world


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New techniques

Having discovered steel and its superior qualities,Iron Age craftsmen transformed it into tools and

weapons such a s kniv es. Soon, new techniq ues weredeveloped, such as quench hardening the rapidcooling of the worked steel in water or oil to increaseits hardness. An archaeological find in Cyprus

indicates that craftsmen were producing quench-hardened steel knives as early as 1100 BCE.

Nonetheless, in the ancient world, steelmakingremained a lengthy and difficult process, and the raresteel items produced would have been highly prized.


Ancient craft

One of the earliest references

to steel-working comes from

Greek historian, Herodotus,

referring to a bowl inlaid

by Glaucus of Chios in the

seventh century BCE: A

great bowl of pure silver, with

a salver in steel curiously inlaid. Glaucus, the

Chian, made it, the man who first invented the

art of inlaying steel.

A global industry begins

Iron Age steelmakers did not understand thechemistry of steel. Its creation held many mysteriesand the final result depended on the skill ofindividual metal workers. First among these were thecraftsmen of southern India. As early as the t hirdcentury BCE, they were using c rucibles to smelt

wrought i ron with c harcoal t o produce wootz steel a material that is still admired today for its quality.

Chinese craftsmen were also manufacturinghigh-quality steel. It seems that the Chinese hadsomething similar to the Bessemer processas early asthe second century BCE, which was only developedin Europe in the 19 thcentury. Steel agriculturalimplements were widely used in the ang Dynasty,around 600-900 CE.

Moreover, with expertise came trade. Te skills oftraders in India and China created an international

market in steel. Many historians believe that thefamous Roman natural scientist and writer Plinythe Elder was referring to China when he describedSeres as the best source of steel in t he world. AndDamascus swords, celebrated for their exceptionalquality, were made of wootz steel f rom India.

Legendary swords

Much of the demand for early steel was driven bywarfa re. Imperia l armie s, includ ing those of China,Greece, Persia and Rome, were eager for strong,durable weapons and armour. Among others, theRomans learnt how to temperwork-hardened steel toreduce its brittleness by reheating it and allowing it tocool more slowly.

By the 15thcentury, steel was well establishedworldwide. Swor ds in par ticul ar took fu ll advant ageof steels unique properties, the blades being tough,flexible and easily sharpened. From Damascus and

oledo swords to the kat anas wie lded by Japanes esamurai, steel was the material of choice for the finest

weapons of the ir age.

Te use of stee l was not con fined to mi litar ypurposes. Many tools such as axes, saws and c hiselsbegan to incorporate steel tips to make them moredurable and efficient. Yet, despite its growing use,making steel remained a slow, time-consuming and

expensive process.A Japanese Buddhist templ e bell

Iron Age metal workers almost certainly discovered steel as an accidental

by-product of their activities

Iron is reheated to reduce its brittleness

The bayonet was first r eferred to as earl y as 1611, and it was named

after Bayonne in France. This a Spanish bayonet

A Japanese katana s word: Traditionall y made from a speci alised Japanese s teel called Tamahagane,

which consist of co mbinations of hard, high-carbon steel and tou gh, low carbon steel

Traditional Persia n swords (sha mshirs): T he word means curved

like the lions claw


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Production speed heats up

Mostly, the steelmakers of the time were producingsteel using the cementation process, in which

wrought ir on bars a re layered i n powdered ch arcoaland heated for long periods to increase the carboncontent in the alloy. It was a process that could takedays or weeks.

Ten in 1740, a secre tive yet h ighly inv entive you ngEnglishman called Benjamin Huntsman revealedhis new crucible technique to master cutlers in t henorth of England. Using a clay pot, called a crucible,he was able to achieve temperatures high enoughto melt the bars created in the cementation processand cast (pour) the resulting liquid steel to createsteel ingotsof uniform high quality and in relativelyhigh quantities at least in comparison with whathad gone before. Huntsmans invention was not thefinal step towards low-cost, high-volume productionof high-quality steel. It would take other inventorsto achieve that goal. He had, however, provided theimpetus for one of the greatest steelmaking centres of

the 19thand 20thcenturies Sheffield, England.

Clock springs to cutlery

Huntsmans invention

began with clock springs.

As a clockmaker,

Huntsman was dissatisfied

with the quali ty of existing

steel parts from Germany,

so he set out to make

his own steel. Remarkably, when he first

approached the cutlers of Sheffield with his

crucible steel, they refused to work with it.

Only when they were unsuccessful in trying

to block him from exporting it to French

manufacturers, did they finally start using it.

The rise of crucible steel

Over the centuries, the true nature of Damascus orwootz steel and how it was ma de intri gued meta lworkers and scholars a cross Asi a and Europe . Manyearly Islamic scientists wrote studies on swords andsteel with extensive discussions of Damascus steel.And from the mid-17thcentury, a growing number ofEuropean travellers such as Frenchman Jean-Baptiste

avernier incor porated v isits to Indi an steelm akingsites on their journeys to the East, offering detailedeye-witness accounts in their books and journals.

Tis intere st reflect ed the conti nued grow th in ir onand steelmaking across Europe. As early as the 12thcentury, technologies such as blast furnaces, alreadyknown in Asia, began to emerge. Te remains ofone of the earliest examples can still be seen atLapphyttan, in Sweden. Indeed, thanks to its richiron-ore deposits, advanced production techniquesand the purity of its wrought iron, Sweden becamea major supplier of high-quality iron to steelmakersacross the continent.

Damascene mysteries

A legend in thei r own time, Damascus swords

were renowned for their s harpness an d wavy

surface patterning. They were made from

wootz steel, which proba bly originated in

Central Asia or Southern India. To this day,

nobody has been able to reproduce the

characteristics of this remarkable steel.


The Great Exhibi tion, Crys tal Palace, London (1851)

Blacksmiths inside a forge taken from the Illustrate d London N ews, circa 1740


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Revolution!

Huntsmans development of the crucible processwas just one inv ention of the Indu stria l Revolutio n,

a time of huge technological creativity. Originating

in Britain, the Industrial Revolution led to massive

changes in manufacturing, trade a nd society

worldwide. W hen it bega n in the 18 thcentury, iron

still dominated the industrial la ndscape. By its end

in the early 20thcentury, steel was king, the metal at

the heart of t he modern world.

From trees to steam

Te Industr ial Revolut ion and moder n steelmanufacture began with a shortage of trees. Up tothe 1700s, British iron and steelmakers used charcoalboth in their furnaces and to carburise iron. But

with ag ricult ural a nd indust rial ex pansion, woo dbecame in increasingly short supply. So metalworkersturned to coke, made from coal, as the fuel forreverberatory furnaces, where heat radiated off the

walls a nd roof to cre ate temperat ures hig h enoughto melt the ore.

Ten in 1709, Abraha m Darby pe rfected t he useof coke in a blast furnaceto produce pig ironforpots and kettles. Tis new technique helped boostproduction, leading to further demand for coal andcoke. But coal mining had a problem: how to keepunderground mines from flooding.

18THTO 19THCENTURIES

Tomas Newcomen de veloped a revolut ionar ysolution, the atmospheric engine, a forerunner of

the steam engine, in 1712, and it changed the world.By 1775, James Watt had created an improved steamengine; by 1804, the first rai lways had been built.

Where in dustrie s such as te xtile s once relie d onmanual labour, watermills and horses, steam broughtmechanisation and mass production.

Building with metal

Steam pumps helped power water wheels, whichallowed iron and steel manufacturers to drive theirblast furnaces, even in periods of low rain fall. Cokepig iron became plentiful, and iron was increasinglyreplacing wood as a construction material. In 1778,Darbys grandson built the famous Iron Bridge inShropshire, England, one of the most innovativestructures of the age, which is still functional and in

very s ound condit ion.

Meanwhile, steel was providing the hard, sharp

edges for many of the tools required by this new eraof machine power. It was the material of choice fordrill bits, saws and cutting edges of all kinds. Tesegrowing applications of iron and steel encouragedfurther innovation. Soon another inventor, HenryCort, would set the scene for a vital manufacturingprocess the rolling of sheet iron and steel.

Steel plus steam allowed for the vital development of railways

The Iron Bridge i n Shropshire, England. The first arch bri dge in the world

to be made of cast iron - it was opened in 1781, and stands to this day

19th century blast furnaces in Lancashire, England


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The foundations of the modern world

As the Industrial Revolution progressed, so diddemand for iron and steel. Tese metals werecritical to trade and t ransport. Tere would be norailways without metal. And shipbuilders too, weredemanding ever-higher quality metal components.As a supplier to the shipbuilding industry, HenryCort developed two ground-breaking techniques tomeet these needs, patented in 1783 and 1784.

One involved improving the quality of pig iron bystirring the molten melt in a puddling furnace. Tisreduced the carbon content, so the metal was tougherand less brittle. Te second technique involved rollingthe hot metal ready for manufacturing into endproducts. Gentler than traditional hammering, thisfurther added to the metals strength.

With this c ombination , Cort set the scene for ma ssproduction of vital components for the new industrial

world such as t racks for r ailway s. It paved the w ayfor industrial-scale rolling mills and the creation of

sheet iron and steel for new applications, such as thebuilding of iron ships.

Steel makes its mark

By the 1800s, large-scale industrialisation wasspreading throughout Europe. Pioneers tookthe latest techniques and technologies with themoverseas, bringing industrialisation to North America,

Japan and t he rest of the wor ld.

At this time, steel was not yet being mass produced.Nonetheless, it was making a major impact in areassuch as agricu lture. Nowhere was this more apparentthan North America, where farmers were turning

virg in land i nto farmab le soil.

Above all, steel played a key role in opening up theprairies of the M idwest.Wrought ironploughs simplybroke in the heavy soils, so a qu ick-thinking youngblacksmith called John Deere created a plough witha steel blade. In the next 50 years, t he steel plough andsteam-driven equipment transformed agriculture, not

just in t he US but in Eu rope as well . Mechani sationhad arrived on the land.

Pipes and welds

In 1815, Scottish engineer William Murdock issaid to have joined together disused musket bar relsto form a pipe network for his coal-fired lightingsystem in London. His initiative marked the startof steel piping, now a fundamental element in oil,gas and water inf rastructures. odays pipes areeither seamless, with the centre forced out duringproduction, or have a welded seam along t heir length,technology that dates to the Mannesmann process,based on cross-roll piercingwhich, for decades, wasused in combination with pilger rolling. Both rollingtechniques were invented by the German brothersReinhard and Max Mannesmann towards the endof the 19thcentury. In the 1880s, while they wererolling starting material for the family s file factory,the Mannesmann brothers noticed that rolls arrangedat an angle to each other can loosen the core of aningot and cause it to break open. Based on the boldidea of putting this phenomenon to systematic use,they managed to produce a seamless hollow bodyfrom a solid ingot initially by rolling alone. Verysoon, however, they optimized the rolling process

by using a plug to ensure more uniform piercingand a smoother inside surface. Te need for pipesto be perfectly sealed has helped driveweldingtechniques, as well as the development of steels that

can withstand high welding temperatures withoutcracking or weakening.

STEAM AND THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION

Famous names in steel

Some of todays leading steel

companies have their roots

in the 1800s. For example,

Friedrich Krupp and partners

formed the Krupp Company

in Germa ny in 1811. By the

end of the century, it was

the largest steel company in Europe and today

is part of the ThyssenKrupp group. In Japan,

Nippon Steel (today Nippon Steel & Sumitomo

Metals) can trace its history back to 1857,

when steel was succe ssfully tapped from

Japans first Western-style furnace at Kamaishi.

An 18thcentury puddling furnace

The Eiserner Steg steel bridge built in 1868 in Fra nkfurt, Ger many


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Material of choice

In the course of just t wo decades, these inventorsshaped the modern steel industry. Now, consistentlygood quality steel was available in high volumeand consistent shapes and sizes, perfect for the vastmajority of large-scale, heavy-duty applications.

Steel quickly replaced iron in the emerging railways,and all kinds of construct ion from bridges tobuildings. It also enabled the manufacture of large,powerful turbines and generators, harnessingthe power of water and steam to drive fur therindustrialisation and usher in the age of electricpower.

The Bessemer converter

Bessemer aimed to create

steel by driving the impurities

out of pig iron. Air-pumps

forced high-pressure air

through molten iron in his

egg-shaped furnace. Rather

than cooling the iron, the

air reacted with impurities such as carbon,

manganese and silicon in the iron, causing

them to oxidise. This raised the temperature

further, igniting even more impurities and

producing a violent display with sparks and

flames erupting from the converters open top

like a volcano. Fast and cheap, when finally

perfected this spectacular process took less

than half an hour to turn pig iron into steel. Ancient technique, modern success

Bessemer was not the first to invent an air-injection process to create steel. Such techniques had

been used in ancient China. William Kelly, an American inventor, independently came up with such a

process in the 1850s, possibly inspired by Chinese know-how. Kelly subsequently went bankrupt, and

even Bessemer struggled to make his process work. It was advice from Englishman Robert Mushet,

an expert metal-worker, to blow off all the impurities then add carbon back into the metal that finally led

to a high-quality, malleable (rollable) product.


Into mass production

For centuries, steel had remained a niche metal,prized for its toughness and for creating sharp edges,but it was slow and expensive to manufacture. In the1850s and 1860s, new techniques emerged that mademass production possible.

Tis tra nsformatio n is larg ely associ ated with t hework of one Engli sh inventor, Hen ry Bess emer.Arguably the most influential advance of the laterIndustrial Revolution, the Bessemer process formedthe heart of steelmaking for more than 100 yea rs.Introduced in 1856, it revolutionised the industry

with a qu ick, cheap w ay to produce st eel in lar gequantities.

At the same time, Carl Wilhelm Siemens, a Germannational who spent most of his life in England, wasdeveloping his regenerative furnace. By recycling thehot exhaust gases from the previous batch of melting,Siemens process could generate temperatures highenough to melt steel. And by 1865, Frenchman

Pierre-Emile Martin had applied Siemenstechnology to create the Siemens-Martin open-hearthprocess. Although not quite as fast as theBessemer process, open-hearth techniques a llowedfor more precise temperature control, resulting inbetter-quality steel. Tere are now only seven of theseregenerative furnaces left in the world. A steam turbine: S teel is an irrepl aceable component

A 19thcentury industrial landscape in Wales by Penry Williams

The Eiffel Tower in Paris , France: Gustav e Eiffels iconic i ron lattice

masterpiece contains 18,038 pieces of puddle iron and 2.5 million rivets


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Carnegie was a master of efficiency. He was quickto adopt, and improve on, innovations such as the

Bessemer process. He is also credited with thevertic al integ ration of a ll raw mater ials suppli ersand was involved in several early steel projects. Forexample, his Keystone Bridge Company supplied thesteel for one of the worlds first steel bridges, the EadsBridge across the Mississippi at St Louis, completedin 1874 and still in use today.

Te Carneg ie steelworks also provi ded a first j ob forCharles Schwab, who went on to r un the BethlehemSteel Company, one the US largest and most famous20thcentury steelmakers. And across t he USA, this

was an ag e of steel const ruct ion first s. New YorksBrooklyn Bridge, the first steel wire suspensionbridge, opened in 1883. Te worlds first steel-framedskyscraper, the Home Insurance Building in Chicago

was const ructed by Willi am Le Baron Jenney in1884-1885. Te Iron Age was at its end and the ageof steel had truly begun.

Andrew Carnegie

Andrew Carnegies life is

the classic rags-to-riches

tale. Born in Dunfermline,

Scotland, his family emigrated

to the US in 1848. Carnegie

started work aged 13, earning

just 20 cents pe r day. At 18,

he was employed by the Pennsylvania Railroad

Company, where he advanced rapidly up

the organisation while learning much about

business. In 1870, he founded the Carnegie

Steel Company, which grew to become the

largest and most profitable industrial enterprise

in the world by the 1890s.

At age 66, Carnegie so ld the company

to financier, banker and philanthropist J.P.

Morgan, who developed many improvements

in mill design and rolling of steel that were

built on and improved over the decades tocome Carnegie, meanwhile, devoted the rest

of his life to investing his wealth in projects for

the public good. These ranged from libraries

to schools and hospitals and included the

Carnegie Institute of Technology, now part

of the Carnegie Mellon University.

Building the future

With the int roduction of the Bessemer process,steel became one of the cornerstones of the worldsindustrial economy. Available in large quantities andat a competitive price, steel soon supplanted iron inbuildings where steel framing and reinforced concretemade curtain-wall architecture possible, leadingto the first skyscrapers. And in shipbuilding, steelbegan to replace wrought iron plates. Cunards SSServia was one of the first steel liners complete withanother innovation, electric lighting.

Britain grew to be t he worlds largest producer ofsteel. Te bulk of the UKs steel industry was locatedin Sheffield, where John Deere initially sourced thesteel for his ploughs. But by the last decade of the19thcentury, America would outgrow Britain tobecome the largest steel producer in the world, duemainly to the efforts of one man: Andrew Carnegie.

A weavers son from Scotland, Andrew Carnegiewas alr eady a succe ssful b usinessma n in the r ail andtelegraph industries by the start of the AmericanCivil War in 1861. After the war, the US saw a boomin construction. Railways opened up the Wild Westand the cities of Americas east coast grew rapidly.And Carnegie was there to meet the demand for iron,and later steel.


The steel structure in A ntwerps Central Train Sta tion (1905)

Brooklyn bridge, New York, USA (1883). This was the longest suspension

bridge in the world until 1903, and the first steel-wire suspension bridge

An old-style s kyscraper, built before steel became commonpl ace in

skyscrapers construction


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20THCENTURY GLOBAL EXPANSION, 1900-1970s

The steel age

By the dawn of the 20th

century, steelmakingwas a major indust ry and science wa s increasing ly

unlocking the mysteries of steel. A British

gentleman scientist named Henry Clifton Sorby

created a sensation by putting metal samples under

a microscope. His pioneering work revealed steels

secret it gained its strength from the small,

precise quantities of carbon locked within the

iron crystals.

Tis was al so an age of g reat indus tria lists. In t heUS, J.P. Morgan bought out Andrew Carnegies steelbusiness to form the United States Steel Corporationin 1901, which founded the city of Gary, Indianain 1906 as the home for its new plant Gary wasnamed after Elbert Henry Gar y, founding chairmanof US Steel. Morgan had learned from Carnegie thatintegrating all parts of the manufacturing processinto one single organisation could lead to efficienciesin process and scale. In 2011, US Steel was thesecond-largest producer of steel in the US.

Manufacturing processes evolved too. Te open-hearth process gradually replaced the Bessemerprocess as the primary method for steel production.Although slower, this drawback was also itsadvantage plant chemists had time to analyse andcontrol the quality of the metal during the refiningprocess, resulting in stronger g rades of steel.

With great er unders tandin g of the proper ties of ste el,steel alloysbecame more widespread. In 1908, theGermania

, a 366-ton yacht built by the FriedrichKrupp Germania shipyard had a hull made ofchrome-nickel steel. And in 1912, two of KruppsGerman engineers, Benno Strauss and EduardMaurer, patented stainless steel, the invention of

which is i n fact usu ally c redited to Ha rry Bre arley(1871-1948), a Sheffield-born English chemist who,during his work for one of the cit ys laboratories,began to research new steels that could betterresist the erosion caused by high temperatures, andexamine the addition of chromium, which eventuallyresulted in the c reation of what is probably the best-known alloy of all.

The impact of war

Te 20 thcenturys two world wars had hugeconsequences for steelmaking. Like other heavyindustries, steelmaking was nationalised in manycountries due to demands for mi litary equipment.

Steel was required for the railways and ships thatcarried troops and supplies.

Military vehicles and particularly the tank also reliedheavily on steel. From their invention unti l the endof the Second World War, tanks were protected bysteel plates with a uniform structure and compositionknown as rolled homogenous armour (R HA). Tistype of armour was so universal that it became thestandard for determining the effectiveness of anti-tank weapons.

Pyrite mineral on mine rock

A Soviet T-34 tank (produced between 1940 and 1958)

A 1950s Cadillac Eldorado C hrome Grille in S an Francisco, Cali fornia, USA


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Stronger steel

New technologies and infrastructures drove demandfor new kinds of materials with very specificmechanical properties. Steelmakers around t he worldresponded to the challenge, launching developmentsthat would reveal steels almost in finite versatility.By adding carefully controlled quantities of differentelements to the melted iron ore, they began todevelop new high strength, low al loy (HSLA) steels.

Te oil and ga s industr y had speci al needs. Gia ntpipelines across baking deserts, frozen wastes, orunder the sea, need to be strong and tough. Teymust also have excellent weldability, so there is no

weaknes s at the joint s betwe en section s. In this case,an HSLA steel with manganese and traces of otherelements delivered all the required properties.

From these beginnings in the 1960s, the range ofHSLA steels has grown enormously. Tey are usedin everything from bridges to lawnmowers. Aboveall, they offer a much greater strength-to-weightratio than traditional carbon steel. ypically, theyare around 20-30% lighter than carbon steels, withthe same strength. Tis property has made themespecially popular with carmakers, allowing cars tobe strong and safe, yet also light and fuel efficient.

As safe as steel

In the Soviet Union, steel

production and use was

driven by Joseph Stalin,

whose name literal ly meant

steel man. Leader of the

country from 1928 to 1953,

Stalin was responsible for

the nations industrial revolution, including

construction of the steel city of Magnitogorsk,

with its Magni togorsk Iron & Steel Wor ks

(MMK), which was built east of the Ural

Mountains, close to significant iron ore

deposits. Magnitogorsk was so remote that

almost everything needed for daily life was

imported by rail and, during the Second World

War, MMK provided much of t he steel for the

Soviet armys tanks. Stalin believed that the

city would be safe from advancing armies,

and so it proved to be MMK continues to

produce and expand today.

Strengthening international bonds

While steel was p roviding the foundatio ns of

modern society, the steel industry was acting

as a focus for new relationships between

countries. In 1951, France, West Germany, Italy

and the Benelux nations joined together in the

European Coal and Steel Community ( ECSC).

The communi ty created a common market

to drive economic expansion, promote industry

and raise living standards. With its focus on

free movement of products, the European Coal

and Steel Community was the first step on a

journey that ulti mately led to the creatio n of the

European Union.

Welcome to the white-goods era

After the austerity of the Second World War, tradeand industry revived. Steel that once went to maketanks and wa rships now met consumer demandfor automobiles and home appliances. Populationsboomed and so did construct ion. As more peoplemoved into cities, buildings became larger and taller,and huge quantities of steel were required for girdersand reinforced concrete.

Growing prosperity and technological innovationtransformed everyday life. By the 1960s, mass-produced electrical appliances became increasinglyaccessible to millions of consumers. Tese includedrefrigerators, freezers, washing machines and tumbledryers, etc. And the iconic shipping container designed in 1955 and made of steel provided astrong, safe way to transport all these goods by ship,road and rail.

Obviously, the automobile quickly became a hugelypopular mass-consumption item, transforming the

landscape and leading to t he development of the oiland gas industry, a process that involved all ty pes ofsteel products.

20THCENTURY GLOBAL EX PANSION, 1900-1970s

A 1950s American kitchen: Steel played an impor tant role in the post-war

labour-saving devices that became increasingly available and inexpensive

Industrial steel pipelines

Steel coils: Holding a continent together


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From flame to electricity

In the mid-20thcentury, steelmaking advanced onmany fronts. Basic oxygen steelmakingand electricarc furnacestransformed the main productionprocesses, making them faster and more energyefficient. Tey even allowed manufacturers to re-usescrap as input material.

Along with introducing new primary techniques,steelmakers also improved on traditional techniquesof casting and rolling to c reate sheets, shapes andsteel to precise customer requirements. Some ofthese developments came from Europe, the USA andRussia. But new steelmakers, especially in Japan andKorea, quickly developed their own innovations thatin turn inspired steelmakers worldwide.

What ex actly wer e these new t echniqu es? Te first basic oxygen steelmaking is essentially a refined

version of t he Bessemer conv erter, whic h uses ox ygenrather than air to dr ive off excess carbon from pigironto produce steel. Te process was invented by aSwiss, Robert Durrer, in 1948, and was then f urtherdeveloped by Austrian company VES AG (today

voestalpi ne AG). It is also know n as the Li nz-Donawitz (LD) process, after the Austrian towns in

which it was first comme rciali sed.

Most importantly, the process is fast. Modern basicoxygen furnaces (BOFs) can convert an iron chargeof up to 350 tonnes into steel in less than 40 minutes compare this with the 1012 hours needed tocomplete a heat in an open-hearth furnace.

Making the most of scrap

Seeing the benefits of speed and reduced energyconsumption, manufacturers soon began to replaceopen-hearth fur naces with BOFs. But in the 1960s,scrap from vehicles, household appliances andindustrial waste became a significant, and c heap,resource. Te question was, how to reuse it? In aBOF, up to 25% of the charge can be scrap steel.

So, innovative steelmakers turned to an oldtechnique and brought it up to date. Electric arc

furnaces (EAFs) had first appeared at the end ofthe 19thcentury. However, until t he 1960s, theywere prima rily u sed for speci alit y steels and alloys.

Now, with abundant scrap, EAFs were suited forlarger-scale production. Unlike a BOF, an EAFdoes not need hot metal it can be fed with coldor preheated scrap steel or pig iron. Te furnace ischarged with material and electrodes are loweredinto it, striking an arc and thereby generating highenough temperatures to melt the scrap. As with aBOF, the process is quick, ty pically taking less thantwo hours. Moreover, EAF plants are relatively cheapto build, which was an important advantage forAmerican and European industries still recoveringfrom a world war.

Continuous casting

In addition to these new ways to produce raw steel,

new ways to cast (pour) the molten metal into mouldsemerged. Up to the 1950s, steel was poured intostationary moulds forming ingots (large blocks)that were then rolled into sheets, or smaller shapesand sizes. In continuous casting, liquid steel is fedcontinuously into a mould in a conveyor belt typeprocess, creating a long strandof steel. As thestrand emerges from the mould, it is cut into slabsor blooms, which are much thinner than traditionalingots and thus easier to roll into finished and semi-finished products.

Steels for every purpose

Producing raw steel and moulding it into ingots orslabs is just the first step in industrial steelmaking.

Tese huge block s must be rol led to reduce t heirthickness and form them into the required shapesand sizes. At this stage t he steelmakers skill brings

yet more vers atilit y to the meta l.

Craftsmen in ancient times knew that steelsproperties depend not only on its chemicalcomposition, but also on how it is heated, cooled,

hammered and rolled. Modern steelmakers havemastered these processes to an amazing degree, withJapan bein g the chie f contribu ter in the fi eld. oday,steelmakers can offer customers almost any set ofcharacteristics they request, from ultra-strong steelsto foils as thin as tissue paper.


Scrap recycling is very profitable and also helps reduce greenhouse-gas

emissions and conserve energy and natural resources

An Electric Arc Fur nace (EAF)

Steel ingots, cast into shapes that are suitable for further processing


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26 27

The continuous casting process


The molten steel can be tapped

from the bottom of the ladle into

an intermediate container known

as the tundish. The temperature

of the melt is now below 1,600C.

Cooling continues

by quenching with wat

er

along the whole of the strand.

The steel is glowing hot but has

solidified all the way through when it

is cut into billets by means of oxygen

lances. The temperature is 1,000C.

Every billet is marked before it is

placed on the cooling bed.

The open mould consists of

four water-cooled plates between

which hot steel slide s. A solidified

shell is formed during casting.

The casting temperature is

around 1,540C.


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28 29

Finished to perfection

Te complex task of rolling ingots or s labs begi nswith roughing. Giant rollers make a number ofpasses to reduce the thickness of the material forexample, taking a slab down from around 240mm to55mm or less. Next come numerous finishing rollingsteps before recoiling. Ten the material can take anumber of routes, one being picklingto remove thescale, followed by cold rolling.

Both hot and cold processes make the materialthinner; they also transform the crystal struct ureof the iron and other elements in the metal. Tat inturn affects the properties of the steel. Hot rollingincreases ductility, toughness and resistance toshock and vibration. Cold rolling adds hardnessand strength.

However, adjusting the mechanical properties ofthe metal does not end there. Often, steel will beannealed: that is to say, reheated to around 800Cand slowly cooled. For example, cold rolled steel hasbeen work-hardened, making it britt le. Annealingsoftens the metal enough to retain sufficient hardness,

while al lowing it to be formed i nto products s uch ascar parts. Other processes such as quenching (rapidcooling) and tempering (re-heating after quenching)provide further control over each grade of steelsprecise mechanical properties.

Galvanising innovation

Steel is used in hugely

demanding applications

from shipbuilding to pressure

vessels in nucle ar power

stations. It is also trusted

by millions of people to

keep a roof over their head.

Galvanised corrugated roofing is a familiar sight

worldwide. Galva nisation has be en known

since the 19 thcentury, but in the 1930s, a

young Pole, Tadeus Sendzimir, invented a way

to galvanise steel in a continuous production

process. His Sendzimir Company also became

a world leader in cold rolling, and the steel skin

for the Apollo spacecraft was produced in one

of its mills.


Finally, the steel may be coatedto protect it fromrust and corrosion this is especially important

in applications such as shipbuilding, bridges andrailways where the metal can be ex posed to heat,cold, salty seawater and rain. Hot dip galvanisingis widely used to coat steel with a layer of protectivepure zinc or a zinc-aluminium mix . For otherapplications, the surface may be pre-primed to takepaint, or treated for UV and scratch resistance, orgiven a dedicated treatment or coating from a vastpalette of colours that add functional or decorativefinishes.

The mini mills transformation

Te rise of elec tric a rc fur naces (E AF) in t he 1960spaved the way for mini millsand a significant changein the steel industry. raditional integrated millsbased on basic oxygen furnaces (BOFs) require ablast furnace to supply molten iron as input. Tey arelarge and costly to build. Mills based on an EAF aredifferent. Using scrap or direct reduced iron (DRI) orpig iron as input materials, they are generally smallerand simpler to build and operate hence the namemini mills. Tey can also be set up w ith a smallerlevel of capital, and that opened the door to a newbreed of entrepreneurs.

In Europe, German entrepreneur and steelmakinginnovator, Willy Korf, broke new ground in the steel

Hot rolling: A metal forming process in which metal stock is passed

through a pair of rollers

A crude-oil tanker

St. Johns Bridge in Portland, Oregon, USA, is a steel suspension bridge,

opened in 1931


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30 31

Recycling ahead of its time

Mini mills are effectively recycling plants.

They take in scra p metal and co nvert it into

useful steel. Today, the importance of this

is clear, not just commercially but for the

benefit of the planet, as it saves the use of

natural resources/raw materials. In the 1960s,

however, the concept of sustainability was

only just starting to emerge.

The question of h ow far the planet coul d

sustain growing populations hit the headlines

in 1970, when a group of politicians,

academics and industrialists published

The Limits to Growth. Among the group

was Dutchman Ma x Kohnstamm, a former

secretary of the High Authority of the European

Coal and Steel Community. Although the

reports findings caused controversy at the

time, governments and industry bodies

worldwide now agree that manufactur ings

future depends on efficient, sustainable use

of energy and resources. It was complemented

by the Brundtland Commission report Our

Common Future, in 1987, which addressed

similar themes.

industry by establishing an EA F plant on an islandin the Rhine, near Strasbourg, France in 1968. Justa year later, Korf took the technology to the UnitedStates, setting up the Georgetown Steel mini mill inSouth Carolina.

Around the same time, US metallurgist Ken Iversonwas bui lding Nucor s first min i mill at Darlin gton,also in South Carolina. oday, Nucor is one of thelargest steel producers in the USA, and one of the

worlds larg est rec yclers of a ny kind. Yet when Ke nIverson was asked to become its president, it was astruggling conglomerate in which t he only profitabledivision was the steel-girder making operation runby Iverson himself.

Within t wo years , Iverson had t urned t he companyaround, making it profitable and a leader in its

field. His faith in the potential of mini mil ls provedwell-founded an d for the nex t 16 years, t he companybucked the trend of the declining US steel industry,achieving rapid and consistent growth. Iversonbroke down hierarchical structu res and emphasisedteamwork, performance-based compensation, sharedbenefits and community involvement.

Tese innov ations in ma nagement st ruct ures werealso matched by taking the lead in t he developmentof mini-mill technology, which at the time wasundergoing a revolution. In particular, t hey movedmini-mill technology closer to the high-value end ofthe steel product range, producing high-quality flatproducts from scrap feed materials.

Both Korf and Iverson were pioneers. Tey builtsuccessful businesses by using the latest technologies

such as continuous casting and water-cooling tobe as efficient and flexible as possible. Iverson also

built Nucors prosperity on forward-thinking humanrelations. He introduced a compensation system thatrelied heavily on performance bonuses, promotingteamwork and company loyalty as well as increasedproductivity. Many companies have copied Iversonsapproach and his ideas are still being discussed in t heboardrooms of steel companies around the world.

White-hot steel pours f rom a 35-tonne electric fur nace, Allegheny Ludlum Steel C orp., Brackenridge, USA

Hot steel spheres

Steel profile laser cutting



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32 33

END OF 20THCENTURY, START OF 21ST

Going for growth: Innovation

of scaleWhile mi ni mill s were emergin g in the USA

and Europe, Asia saw innovation in scale and

throughput. Pursuing rapid growth in the 1960s

and 70s Japan, followed closely by South Korea,

developed massive state-of-the-art i ntegrated

facilities. Tese generated high-quality flat

products from coils to coated and galvanised

sheets, targeted at sectors such as automotive and

appliance manufacturing.

Unlike older steelmaking countries, neither Korea norto a lesser extent Japan had a legacy of open-hearthfurnace production. Instead, partly due to a lack ofdomestic scrap, they advanced directly to innovativebasic oxygen fur nace (BOF) technology, buildinggiant blast furnaces to supply the pig iron input.

Early adopters

Japanese produc ers also a dopted contin uous cast ingon a massive scale, further increasing t hroughputand reducing costs. Korea took the same path, andtoday virtually a ll its output is produced this way.At the same time, both countries seized on computertechnology as a means of managing their vastoperations. Fuji Steel introduced analogue computers

as early as 1962, and the microchip revolution of the1970s fuelled the use of electronics for process andinformation control.

With elect ronic tec hnology, produc ers could ha ndle

complex scheduling and meet the demand for awider ra nge of produc ts as well a s stri ngent qua lityrequirements. Modernisation also changed workingpractices. Automated equipment meant plants weremuch safer and could be operated by smaller numbersof workers, improving efficiency and reducing risks.

Established leaders

Although buffeted by economic challenges insubsequent decades, Japan has retained its leadershipin steel production, being second only to Chinain volume. And by following a similar path indeveloping highly efficient large-scale integratedfacilities, Korea has also become a global player.In 2011, South Korean Pohang Iron and SteelCompany (POSCO) was the fourth largeststeel-producer in the world. oday, the products,technologies and expertise, particularly in continuouscasting, of both countries are sought after worldwide.

A cargo ship buil t of welded steel has a l ife expectancy of 25 to 30 years

before being scrapped

A steel coil galva nising production l ine

Steel is essential to the delicate, precise, labour-saving work conducted by production robots


18/27

34 35

Continuing innovation

Old or new, Japan and Koreas companies

are committed to innovation. Created in 1970

from the merger of Yawata Steel and Fuji Steel,

Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metals can trace

its roots back to 1857. Now Japans biggest

steelmaker, it invests extensively in continued

process improvement and in ensuring

steelmaking plays its role in respecting the

planet.

In South Korea, POSCO began life only in

1968 during the countrys rapid economic

expansion. By 1985, its first plant in Pohang

was producing 9.1 million tonnes of cru de steel

per year and work had begun on a second

in Gwangyang now one of the worlds

largest steel mills. Today, POSCOs global

manufacturing network extends to China, India,

Vietnam an d Mexico, and even Japa n, its

original backer in the 1960s.

Russian strength

Despite years of lack of investment, at the

time of its dissolution in 1991, the Soviet

Union had overtaken Japan to become the

worlds biggest steel p roducer. In the 1990s

and 2000s, privatisation brought massive

investment in new equipment to speed

production and reduce costs. At the same

time, the rapidly growing Russian economy

of the 2000s coupled with neighbouring

Chinas economic boom created huge

demand, providing the Russian industry with

a vast export market and ensuring its place as

a top-five global steel producer. Currently, the

top four steelmaking companies in Russia are

Evraz, Severstal, MMK and NLMK.

Enter the entrepreneurs

Flourishing large-scale production in Japan andKorea contrasted with trends elsewhere. By the1970s integrated steel production in Europe andNorth America suffered from outdated technology,over-capacity, rising labour and raw materialscosts, and competition from alternative materialssuch as aluminium and plastics. In countries whereproduction was nationalised, governments wereunwilling to invest against a backdrop of decliningmarkets, so equipment and processes failed to evolve.

As the 1980s progressed, economic conditionspresented challenges for large plants worldwide.But as the industry looked for a way ahead, a waveof innovation in mini mills a nd privatisation openedup new opportunities for steel entrepreneurs.

Mini mills expand into new markets

Initially mini mills produced low-value rebarsteel

(concrete reinforcing bars). With small meltingchambers and input of scrap, they could not competewith high-q ualit y products f rom integ rated mil ls.

However, as the rebar market became saturated,mini mill owners developed ways to produce higher

value structural steel. In 1987, Nucor pioneered theuse of an EAF and compact strip production(CSP)

from German company SMS SchloemannSiemag toproduce sheet steel. By starting w ith thin slabs of just

40-70mm, CSP dramatically reduced the time andnumber of rolling stages needed to produce steel asthin as 1mm. And for mini mills, it meant a cost-effective way to enter the sheet-steel market.

New technologies also enabled them to diversify intoa wider range of feedstock (not just scrap) and toexpand further into speciality steels. Tese technicalinnovations combined with the relatively low cost andease of start-up and operation, all helped drive globalexpansion of mini mills.

Privatisation brings added growth

At the same time, economic reforms brought newenergy to longer established parts of the industry.Many failing nationalised companies benefited fromprivatisation. Sometimes this led to consolidation,but usually with an injection of capital investment inmodernising plants, processes and working practices.Although steelmaking remained mainly a nationalbusiness, consolidation first started on a regionalbasis. In 1999 Koninklijke Hoogovens merged withBritish Steel to form the A nglo-Dutch businessCorus and in 2001 Acelaria (Spain), Usinor (France)and Arbed (Luxembourg) merged to form Arcelor inEurope. In Japan, JFE Holdings was formed in 2002from NKK and Kawasaki Steel.


The invention of reinfor ced concrete in the 19thcentury revolutionized the

construction industry

A large hot orange s teel sheet being rolled i n a steel mill

The Zhivopisny Br idge (2007) in Moscow, Rus sia, is the highes t

cable-stayed bridge in Europe


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36 37

And then t wo examples of global consolidationcame with ArcelorMittal and ata Steel of India.

Troughout t he 1980s and 90s, the e ntrepreneu rLakshmi Mittal built Mittal Steel, turning numerousloss-making nationalised companies into profitableprivate enterprises. Its 2006 merger with Arcelorcreated the worlds largest steel producer, employingmore than 260,000 people worldwide. Te second

instance came in 2007, with the purchase of Corusby ata Steel.

Innovation and global connections

At the start of the 21stcentury, new technologiesare firmly established in the steel industry. Basicoxygen steelmaking (BOS) accounts for some 60 %of global production of raw steel. Continuous casting,along with innovations in rolling and finishing, havebrought major efficiency gains while reducing theindustrys demands on energy for heat and waterfor cooling.

Te uptake of ne w technolog ies reflect s the ex tensiveknowledge sharing between long-establishedplayers and dynamic new ones. Compact stripproduction (CSP) and a similar technique, in-linestrip production (ISP), are prime examples. CSP wasdeveloped by Italian steel specialist Arvedi ISP

was the res ult of cooper ation bet ween Man nesmannDemag (which later dropped out) and Arvedi, whichis now in partnership with VAI.

From these European roots, CSP and ISP arespreading worldwide, including to nations suchas India and Brazil. But expertise, innovation andinvestment flow in all directions.

Koreas giant POSCO, with its eco-friendly FINEXprocess that is designed to meet the increasingly strict

environmental regulations of the 21st

century (withhot-metal quality equivalent to t he conventionalblast-furnace process) is developing a major newplant, a joint venture in Brazil with Dongkuk Steeland Vale. Latin American producers, such as Gerdauand echint, operate mills around the world.

Tis is to na me just a few e xamples, an d newproducers are also emerging. In the first decadeof the 21stcentury, urkeys steel production rosefrom 15 million tonnes to 29 million tonnes onlyoutpaced by China and India. It is now the worldsleading exporter of rebar steel for reinforced concreteand the biggest net exporter of long steel forstructural applications.

The ArcelorMit tal Orbit i n Stratford, Londo n, United Kingdom

Piercy Conners innovation for Indian apartments has made the previously

unfeasible solar solution sustainable thanks to steel

A hot strip mill run-out table

Kathane Shopping Mall by Suryapi in Istanbul, Turkey

Number 5 Blast Furnace at the Port Talbot Tata Steel (formerly Corus)

Plant in South Wales, United Kingdom



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38 39

The Linz-Donawitz process

(LD process)

The in-line strip production

The LD process is a method

used for refining iron by lowering

its carbon content to convert it

into steel.

In-line strip production (ISP) integrates the

thin slab casting phase with the rolling stage. By

reducing a liquid strand core, a slab of 15-25mm

in thickness may be obtained, with the additional

benefits being that there is only a distance of 180

metres from liquid steel to a finished coil and theproduction cycle lasts no longer than 15 minutes.


O2

Oxygenis blown into the iron,

and carbon as well as the

majority of other impurities

(such as nitrogen, traces of

phosphorus, sulphur and any

remaining gangue material) is

removed from the iron to convert

it to steel that contains less than

1.2% carbon.

If scrap is added, certain

contaminants such as zinc,

mercury, cadmium, aluminium

and plastics are removed as well,

and end up in the dust collection

system in off-gas or slag, which is

tapped before the steel is placed

into the ladle for its transfer to the

refining station and casting.


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40 41

Tata: Building on Indias steel

traditions

Indias steel industry owes

much to Jamsetji Nusserwanji

Tata. In the late 1800s, Tata

believed steel could kick-

start Indias own industrial

revolution. While he did not

live to see his dream realised,

his prospectors found an ideal location for

Indias first commercial steel plant at Sakchi,

north-east India, which began operations

in 1912. Tata also wanted to create a great

city for his workers to enjoy life. Built by his

sons, that city called Jamshedpur in Tatas

honour is now home to more than 1.3 million

people, and is among Indias richest and

cleanest cities. In 2007, Tata Steel acquired

Anglo-Dutch ma nufacturer Corus. It i s now the

tenth-largest steel producer on the planet, with

manufacturing facilities worldwide.

Latams European connections

One of the BRIC countries, Brazil, is LatinAmericas largest steel producer and is the fifth-andninth-placed ex porter and producer, respectively, ofsteel worldwide. Following the end of its privatisationprogramme in 1994, many Brazilian producers joinedindustrial and/or financial groups and, as part of theirefforts to improve competitiveness, some steelmakersexpanded their act ivities into logistics-relatedbusiness, such as seaports and railroads.

Brazilian company Gerdau isthe largest producer of longsteelin the Americas andone of the largest suppliers ofspecial steel in the world. Withproduction facilities in theAmericas, Europe and Asia,it was established by German

immigrant Joo Gerdau and his son Hugo in 1901.A true family business, Gerdau has been built onrespect for employees and customers. It is also t he

leading recycler in Latin America, reflecting theimportance of environmental responsibility in itsethos.

Te echint group, anot hergiant of Latin Americansteelmaking, was set up in 1945by Italian engineer, AgostinoRocca. It was heavily involved inthe development of Argentinasindustrial infrastructure,including the construction of

a 1,600km gas pipeline from Comodoro Rivadaviato Buenos Aires in 1949. oday, enaris one ofthe groups companies is a world leader in themanufacture of seamless steel tubes, mainly forthe oil and gas industry. Another group company,

ernium, is a major play er in flat a nd long product sin Latin America.

The steel dragon

Steel production has always gone hand in handwith econom ic development. It i s a fact much i nevidence in China, one of the worlds most dynamiceconomies. Although steelmaking in China as inIndia has ancient roots, the industry was relatively

undeveloped until the second half of the 20th

century.Following the formation of the Peoples Republic ofChina in 1949, the government took steps to developan industrial infrastructure inc luding new steelplants.

However, the industry only really took off followingthe economic reforms of the 1980s. Tese openedup foreign trade, triggering huge economic growthand massive expansion of steelmaking. By t he endof 2011, China was by far the worlds largest steelproducer, with an output of just over 680 milliontonnes.

Much of this production goes to support Chinasrapid urban development. Cities and infrastructureare expanding and being modernised at an incrediblerate. In a bid to make the country self-sufficient insteel, the Baoshan Iron and Steel constructed a brandnew steel plant at Baoshan near the port of Shanghaiin 1978.

World Financial Center in constructi on, Shanghai, China ( 2008).

The design, using a di agonal-braced fra me, employs an effecti ve use

of material, because it decreases the thickness of the outer core shear

walls and the weig ht of the structural steel in the perimeter wal ls

Landscape of the modern city of Beijing, China



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Steel for the Games

Shougang (Capital Steel) is one of Chinas oldest state-owned companies. Its Beijing plant, founded in

1919, was originally built on the outskirts of the city but has since been swallowed up by urban growth.

In 2005 as part of a huge drive to rejuvenate the city ahead of the 2008 Olympic Games, the entire

plant was re-located 150 km away to a purpose-built island off the coast. The Beijing National Stadium

the so-called Birds Nest stadium built for the games used 42,000 tonnes of steel, making it the

worlds largest steel st ructure.

Many other new plants were also built and bythe mid-2000s, there were more than 4,000 steel

companies in China producing 350 million tonnes.Yet this was st ill not eno ugh to meet t he demandand Chinas steel companies have continued to grow.

In 2011, the biggest company was the Hebei Group.It produced more than 44 million tonnes of steel making it the second largest steel producer inthe world. Baoshan Iron and Steel (now known asBaosteel), was close behind with 43 mill ion tonnes,ranking it as the worlds third largest steelmaker.

Te company has s ome of the indus try s mostadvanced steel plants and specialises in deliveringhi-tech steel products for the automotive, householdappliance, shipping and oil and gas industries.

An industry on the move

Te steel indu stry h as seen its fo cus shif ttowards the emerging economies, as theserequire a huge amount of steel for urbanisationand industrialisation. In 1967, when the WorldSteel Association first came into being as theInternational Iron and Steel Institute, theUS, western European countries and Japanaccounted for 61.9% of world steel production.By 2000, this had been reduced to 43.8%.

Tis tren d accelerate d in the 20 00s, w ith therise of China and from 2011 onwards withemerging countries accounting for more than70% of steel use and production China nowrepresents around 45%. Tis shift in momentumlooks likely to continue with other developingeconomies, such as India and countries inAssociation of Southeast Asian Nations(ASEAN) and Middle East and North Africa(MENA).

Loading of iron ore on an extraction site

Cityscape of Jakarta, Indonesia

Stainless steel bearings



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44 45

STEEL INDUSTRY TODAY AND FUTURE DEVELOPMENTS

Sustainable steel

Steel is everywhere in our daily lives from buildingsand vehicles to the tin can that conserves food

safely for months or years. It is the worlds most

important engineering material. Nonetheless

producing steel is extremely energy i ntensive.

However, once produced, steel can be used again

and again. With a global recovery rate of more

than 70%, steel is the most recycled material on

the planet. Whats more, 97% of by-products

from steel manufacturing can also be reused. For

example, slag from steel plants is often used to

make concrete.

Tanks to c ontinuous i mprovement of steel makin gprocesses, it now takes 50% less energy to make atonne of steel than it did thirt y years ago. Usingless energy means releasing fewer g reenhouse gases,a key factor in combating climate change. Indeed,considered over its entire lifecycle, steel products canhave less environmental impact than products madefrom alternative materials such as aluminium orplastic.

Moreover, todays advanced high-strength steelsare stronger and lighter, so less steel is required todeliver the same structural i ntegrity. A lighter car orcargo ship will be more fuel efficient, reducing theirgreenhouse gas emissions.

Steel also has an important role in the worldsgrowing infrastructu re for renewable energy.

Te latest stee ls are enabl ing tal ler, stronger,lighter-weight towers for wind turbines, increasingtheir efficiency and reducing the carbon emissionsassociated with their construction by up to 50%.New roofing systems combine photovoltaic cells

with ga lvanis ed steel panel s. Steel produc ers areeven working with the solar industry to exploreinnovations such as roofing coated with dyes thatcan directly generate electricity.

At the same time, steel plants are cleaner and sa ferthan ever before. Improving health and safety is a

key industry goal, with manufacturers continuallystriving to reduce accidents at work. As a result,the industrys lost-time injury frequency rate halvedbetween 2004 and 2009 the industry is now aimingfor an injury-free workplace.

Co-operation on greener cars

A modern car c onsists of around 50-60%

steel. Over the years, steelmakers and the

automotive industry have worked closely to

make cars stronger, safer and rust resistant.

Advanced high-stre ngth steels can redu ce

lifetime greenhouse gas emissions of a typical

five passenger vehicle by 2.2 tonnes. And

the industry is working to go further. In the

1990s already, the Ultra Light Steel Auto Body

(ULSAB) programme showed ways to achieve

weight reduction with a body that ful fils orexceeds performance and crash-resistance

at potentially lower cost. A similar programme

for electric vehicles, FutureSteelVehicle

(FSV), whose results were released in 2011,

revealed potential reductions to total life cycle

emissions by nearly 70% compared to a

current benchmark vehicle. This was achieved

through 97% use of High-Strength (HSS) and

Advanced High-S trength Steels ( AHSS).

The winds of change: Sustainable steel i s set to play a major role in the lives of future generati ons


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A steel fu ture?

Steel has played a vital enabling role throughoutmuch of human history. It was t he material of thehighest-prized tools in t he Iron Age and the mostfeared weapons in the Middle Ages. It was thematerial that drove the Industrial Revolution, andunderpinned the economic development of countlesscountries.

But steel isnt just the material of our past. It will playan equally important role in our future.

Te worlds populat ion is incr easingly urban . In 2010,around half of us lived in towns or cities. By 2050,it will be around 70%. o handle this migration,cities are expanding rapidly to become mega-cities.Building these mega-cities is going to take a lotof materials, not least of which is steel. Housingand construction already consume 50% of all steelproduced. As urban population densities increase,so too does the need for steel to build skyscrapersand public-transport infrastructure.

Te energy needs of emerg ing count ries ca llfor continuing exploration and production ofhydrocarbons from conventional and non-conventional sources (shales) and from increasingly

demanding environments. Te steel industry isdelivering the necessary hardware with environmentfriendly technologies.

Elsewhere, concerns over carbon dioxide emissions,climate change and the availability of fossil fuels aredriving the demand for renewable energy sources.Steel is a major material for many of these includingsolar, tidal and wind power grids, and pipelines for

water, gas an d resourc e management .

Spurred on by the growth of renewable energy,the steel industry is redoubling its efforts to improvesustainability. Great strides have been made in thepast 25 years. Carbon is a f undamental ingredientof the blast furnace process, and currently c arbondioxide emissions are an inevitable if unwanted result of steelmaking. But will this always bethe case? Te steel industry spends 12 billionper year researching new processes, products andbreakthrough technologies reducing carbon dioxideemissions is a key focus, not only in the steelmakingprocess, but also by using steel as a solution to helpreduce emissions in other product applications.

We do not yet know wher e this re search w ill lead ,but as has been the case in history, innovations insteel will always play a critical vital role in helpingmankind meet its future challenges.

Innovating together

Steelmakers worldwide continue to improve processes and create new steels for new purposes.

Many have their own R&D organisations, but partnership is also a hallmark of steel innovation.

For instance, POSCO and Siemens VAI jointly developed the FINEX process, a lower cost,more environmentally friendly alternative to traditional blast furnaces for producing hot metal. The

industry-wide FutureSteelVehicle initiative aims to bring more than 20 new grades of lighter weight,

cheaper advanced high-strength steels to the market by 2020. There is widespread participation in

programmes to reduce CO2emissions such as ULCOSin Europe, Course 50in Japan and theAISI

CO2Breakthrough Programmein North America. And the industry is increasingly adopting a life cycleapproach to increase efficiency, re-use and recycling at every point of a products life cycle from raw

material extraction to recycling of end-products.

STEEL INDUSTRY TODAY & FUTURE DEVELOPMENTS

Solar power panels, Albuquerque, New Mexico, US. Steel bases are

used to ensure the panels strength and security

Hong Kong Central Business District, China. The steel industry is

delivering technology that is vital to emerging economies


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48 49

GLOSSARY

Alloy- A material w ith metallic properties that iscomposed of two or more substances, of which at

least one must be a metal.Basic oxygen steelmaking- Making steel throughoxidation by injecting oxygen through a lance abovea molten mixture of pig iron a nd scrap steel.

Bessemer process- A process for making steel byblowing air into molten pig iron through the bottomof a converter.

Blast furnace- A f urnace used for smelting ironfrom iron ore.

Carbon steel- A type of steel of which the mainalloying element is carbon.

Carburising- Increasing the carbon content of steelby diffusing carbon into the surface, allowing thesurface to be heat-treated to become a hard, wear-resistant layer.

Cast- An object formed by using a mould.

Cementation process- urning the surface ofwrought i ron bars i nto cementati on, or bliste r, steelby heating layers of iron and charcoal together forapproximately one week. Dur ing the heating, ca rbonfrom the charcoal is absorbed into the surface of theiron bars.

Coating- Applying a protective layer to theoutside of a material using various methods such asgalvanising.

Compact strip production (CSP) 16 - A continuousprocess that significantly reduces the production

workflow fr om liquid pha se steel to t he finishedhot-rolled strip.

Crucible- A small cylindrical vessel made of fire clayin which blister steel is heated to produce high-quality crucible steel.

Curtain-wall architecture- A non-load bearing

Puddling process- A method involving stirringmolten cast iron, mixing it with air to produce

wrought i ron.Quench hardening- Hardening a metal by rapidlysubmerging it in a liquid.

Rebar steel- A reinforcing steel bar.

Regenerative furnace- A f urnace that incorporatesa regenerator in which gas used for fuel and ai r forsupporting combustion are heated.

Reverberatory furnace- A furnace in which theflame and gases pass across the top of the enclosedhearth, heat being reflected down onto the materialin the hearth.

Roughing- Te initial stages the in process ofreducing the thickness of steel slabs.

Scale- Te heavy r ust that forms on the surface ofsteel while it is kept hot during rolling, forging, etc.

Strand- A continuous length of steel produced in a

mill, prior to cutting and/or shaping into finished orsemi-finished products.

Structural steel- Steel shaped for use inconstruction.

empering- o make something harder throughheating.

Welding- Joining t wo pieces of metal together usingheat and pressure to soften the materials.

Wootz steel- An early high-quality form of cruciblesteel believed to have been developed in India around300 BCE.

Wrought iron- Low-carbon content iron that istough and malleable enough for forging and welding.

external wall attached to a framed structure.

Electric Arc Furnace- A f urnace that melts steel

scrap using the heat generated by a high powerelectric arc. During the melting process, elements areadded to achieve the correct chemistry and oxy gen isblown into the furnace to purify the steel.

Flat product- A t ype of finished rolled steel productlike steel strip and plate.

Hot dip galvanisation- A process by which steel isgiven long-term corrosion protection by coating it

with molten z inc.

Ingot- A metal block cast in a particular shape forconvenient further processing.

Integrated mill- Large-scale plant combining ironsmelting and steelmaking facilities, usually based onbasic oxygen furnace. May also include systems forturning steel into finished products.

In-line strip production (ISP)- ISP produceshot-rolled coil down to finished gauges of 1mm, andhas its origins in joint development work by Arvedi

with Germ an plant ma ker Mann esmann Dem ag inthe late 1980s.

Long product- A t ype of finished rolled steelproduct like rail and steel bars.

Mini mill- A small-scale steelmaking plant based onthe EAF, making new steel from mostly steel scrap.May also include facilities for producing finished steelproducts.

Open-hearth process- Making steel using an open-hearth furnace (also known as reverberatory furnace),

which has a sha llow hear th and roof t hat help toremove impurities from the molten iron.

Pickling- Using chemicals to remove the scale fromfinished steel.

Pig iron- Smelted iron at a stage before being cast.


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WEBSITE

2,000 BCThe earliest ste el found from an

archaeological site in Anatolia (Kaman-Kalehoyuk).

403 - 221 BCThe Chinese of the Warring Statesused quench-hardened steel for the

first time.

400 BCSteel weapons such as the Falcatawere produced in the IberianPeninsula, while Noric steel was used

by the Roman military.

300 BCWootz steel, employing a unique wind

furnace driven by monsoon winds,is first made in India. Also known asDamascus steel, wootz is famous forits durability and ability to hold an edge

and was essentially a complicated alloywith iron as its main component.

202 BC - 220 ADChinese of the Han Dynasty createdsteel by melting wrought iron with castiron, creating a carbon-intermediate

steel as early as the 1stcentury AD.

10 ADThe Haya people of East Africa

invented a high-heat blast furnacewhich allowed them to forge carbon

steel at 1,802 C (3,276 F) some 2,000years ago.

10 - 9 ADCrucible steel, which is formed byslowly heating and cooling pure iron

and carbon (typically in the formof charcoal) in a crucible, was firstproduced in Merv.

1574The Cementation proces s was

discovered.

1784Puddling furnace, as developed by

Englishman Henry Cort,first used torefine pig iron.

1857Henry Bessemer develops theBessemer converter incorporatingthe Bessemer process.

1884The first steel-fr amed skyscraper, theChicago Home Insurance Building, isofficially opened.

1865French engineer Pierre-mile Martintook out a license from Siemens and

first applied his regenerative furnace formaking steel. Their process was knownas the Siemens-Martin process.

1890The Forth Bridge in Scotland is firstmajor structure to be built entirelyfrom steel.

19012 March, signature of the United States

Steel Corporation, which was the firstcorporation in the world with a marketcapitalisation of more than $1 billion.

1950Introduction of basic oxygensteelmaking (BOS), which limitsimpurities and can even processold scrap metal into steel, loweringwastage and increasing efficiency.BOS still accounts for the majorityof steelmaking processes in theindustrialised world.

1907First electric arc furnaces (EAF)developed by Paul Hroult, of France

commercial plant utilising the newtechnology is established in UnitedStates.

1970Work completed on 256 metres (841

feet) high US Steel Tower in Pittsburgh.The Steel Tower has a unique triangularshape with intended corners.

2008Steel begins trading as a commodityon the London Metal Exchange.

1936Allegheny Ludlum Steel Division andFord Motor Company create the first

stainless-steel car. Allegheny Ludlumand Ford collaborated on two more

stainless models; a 1960 Thunderbirdand a 1967 Lincoln ContinentalConvertible. Of the 11 cars originally

built, nine are reportedly still in use.

1874Wirtschaftsvereinigung Stahl, GermanSteel Federation, formed.

1874Eads Bridge, the longest arch bridgein the world at the time, with an overall

length of 6,442 feet (1,964 m) wascompleted over the Mississippi Riverat St. Louis, connecting St. Louis and

East St. Louis, Illinois.

1967World Steel Association foundedas the International Iron and SteelInstitute (IISI) in Brussels, Belgium on19 October.

2007The Wembley Stadium used 23,000tonnes of steel were used in the

construction. Another distinguishingfeature of its design is the 134 metrehigh steel arch, which is the longestsingle span steel structure in the world.

2007FutureSteelVehicle (FSV) projectlaunched, a three-year programme

to develop fully engineered, steel-intensive designs for electrified vehiclesthat reduce greenhouse-gas emissions

over their entire life cycle.

2007Work completed on the Burj Khalifa,the worlds tallest steel-framed

skyscraper at 828 metres (more thanhalf a mile) tall, in Dubai.

For a complete view of the themes of The white book of steel,

please visit: worldsteel.org/steelstory

worldsteel.org/steelstory

1784

1574

10-9

AD

10AD

202BC

220AD40

0BC

403-22

1BC 19

6719

5019

0719

0118

65

2008

2007

1970

1936

1857

300BC 18

90

1884

1874

2,00

0BC


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