www.steeltimesint.com – Vol.36 No.4 Vol.36 – May/June 2012 2012 May/June NEWS ANALYSIS & TESTING RUSSIA CONFERENCE REPORTS REPORTS CONFERENCE RUSSIA & TESTING ANALYSIS NEWS

STI may june COVER_Layout 1 5/16/12 11:20 AM Page 1 Page AM 11:20 1 5/16/12 COVER_Layout june may STI STEEL TIMES INTERNATIONAL – May/June 2012 – Vol.36 No.4 may june contents_Contents_STI_Mar10 5/18/12 8:25 AM Page 3

May/June 2012 Contents Vol.36/No.4

Front cover image courtesy of Tenova

EDITORIAL Editor Tim Smith PhD, CEng, MIM Tel: +44 (0) 1737 855154 [email protected]

Deputy Editor Greg Morris Tel:+44 (0) 1737 855132 Production Editor Analysis & testing – Page 17 Transport market – Page 23 Annie Baker

SALES International Sales Manager Paul Rossage [email protected] Tel: +44 (0) 1737 855116 Area Sales Manager Anne Considine [email protected] Tel: +44 (0) 1737 855139 Sales Director Ken Clark [email protected] Tel: +44 (0) 1737 855117 Marketing Executive Annie O’Brien [email protected] Tel: +44 (0) 1737 855012 Advertisement Production Martin Lawrence [email protected] Rolling – Page 29 Know your steel – Page 45

SUBSCRIPTION Elizabeth Barford Tel +44 (0) 1737 855028 Fax +44 (0) 1737 855033/034 Email [email protected] News Steel Times International is published eight times a year and is available on subscription. News – Consumption growth to slow in 2012 2 Annual subscription: UK £155.00 Statistics & Events – March global steel production up 1.8% 8 Other countries: £222.00 (US$342) (€269) USA Update – American steel industry taking manufacturing out of recession 10 2 years subscription: UK £279.00 Other countries: £399.60 (US$615.60) (€484.20) Latin America Update – Single copy (inc postage): £35.00 The value of Brazil’s steel industry to the economy by boosting demand for other industries 12 Email: [email protected] China Update – Chinese steel companies focus on logistics to improve profits 14 Published by: USA Steel – American Iron and Steel Institute calls for further Government intervention 16 Quartz Business Media Ltd, Quartz House, 20 Clarendon Road, Redhill, Surrey, RH1 1QX, England. Analysis & testing Tel: +44 (0)1737 855000 Monitoring the lifeblood of your steel operation 17 Fax: +44 (0)1737 855033/855034 www.steeltimesint.com Fast and advanced inspection of rolls/New in-line profile gauge for long product mills 18 Steel Times International (USPS No: 020-958) is published Concentration measurement made easy 20 monthly except Feb, May, July, Dec by Quartz Business Media Ltd and distributed in the US by DSW, 75 Aberdeen New laser triangulation thickness gauge/Combined hardness tester 22 Road, Emigsville, PA 17318-0437. Periodicals postage paid at Emigsville, PA. POSTMASTER send address changes to Steel Times International c/o PO Box 437, Emigsville, PA Transport market 17318-0437. The demands of the automotive market in USA 23 Printed in England by: Pensord, Tram Road, Pontlanfraith, Ruukki provides HSS for conveying ore/Bloodhound – TWI bonding in 1000mph ‘car’ 26 Blackwood, Gwent NP12 2YA, UK ©Quartz Business Media Ltd 2012 Others Design for integration of roll grinding shop 29 MMK completes structure for high value added steels 34 Severstal: The Russian company breaks new ground in liquidity management 36 AISTech 2012 – An event bolstered by an improving US economy 37 The basics of iron and steel-making – Part 2 Producing iron and steel 45

ISSN 0143-7798 History: Astley Green – The last surviving monument of Lancashire coal 48

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News in Brief World News www.steeltimesint.com

Indian gas call The Minister for Steel has called on Consumption growth Eurofer the New National Steel Policy to ensure sufficient supplies of natural gas to gas based DRI producers. to slow in 2012 forecast Supplies have been restricted in the past by the Ministry of Petroleum & Global and Chinese steel con- than in 2007. Eurofer’s Q2-2012 economic and Natural Gas. sumption growth will slow in 2012, “China has approached the top steel market sees recessionary India is the world leader in the pro- hit by weaker economic growth in inflection point, when growth pressures in the EU gradually eas- duction of DRI, producing 23.25Mt top consumer China and uncer- starts to slow down. After a long ing from Q2 onwards. in FY 2010-11 of which 6.19Mt was tainties about the debt crisis in the period of strong (steel consump- However, the strength and tim- from gas-based plants operated by euro zone, the World Steel tion) growth of around 10% now ing of an economic turnaround Essar Steel in Gujarat, Ispat Association said. we forecast 4% growth,” Basson remains surrounded by uncertain- Industries in Maharashtra and Global steel consumption will added. ties and risks. Most of them stem Welspun Maxsteel also located in grow by 3.6% to 1.422bnt in 2012 In the US apparent steel con- from internal problems and struc- Maharashtra. and by 4.5% to 1.486bnt in 2013, sumption is forecast to grow by tural imbalances in the EU. The remaining 17.0Mt of DRI was down from 5.6% growth last year, 5.7% in 2012 and by 5.6% in 2013, Eurofer director-general produced in coal fired rotary kilns of the World Steel Association when it should reach a level of Gordon Moffat said: “The recent which around 80 companies operat- (worldsteel) forecast. 99.5Mt, or 92% of the 2007 level. trend in the indicators is consistent ed in 2010-11. “Our key negative is uncertainty “The US seems to be on the way with a stabilisation in economic over the euro zone,” said Edwin to recovery: they have got the fundamentals after months of BHP merges stainless unit Basson, the association director financial sector under control and weakening; this could pave the way BHP Billiton is to consolidate its general. the housing market is starting to for a cautious recovery later in the stainless steel materials and alumini- Worldsteel expects EU apparent recover; this will stimulate con- year. Owing to solid order back- um divisions into a single business steel consumption to contract by sumption growth,” Basson said. logs and support from the weaker unit of larger scale, ready to benefit 1.2% this year to 150.9Mt as the Worldsteel forecasts India’s con- euro on export markets, activity from future growth in emerging sovereign debt problems continue sumption to grow by 6.9% in 2012 across EU’s manufacturing sector economies. to act as a major drag on econom- to 72.5Mt and by a further 9.4% in has been holding up well.” BHP said the new aluminium and ic activities in the area. 2013, on the back of urbanisation Activity in the steel using sectors nickel customer sector group, to In 2013 it forecasts 3.3% steel and infrastructure investment. is seen falling by less than 1% in include all its current nickel and alu- use growth in the area, which Steel use is expected to contract 2012. minium assets, would be based in would push consumption up to in Japan by 0.6% this year and by Perth, Australia, under the leader- 155.8Mt, or only 79% of the 2007 2.2% the next, despite reconstruc- ship of Glenn Kellow, currently presi- level. An economic growth slow- tion efforts after the March 2011 dent of stainless steel materials. down in China is also going to earthquake as currency apprecia- Guinea Together, BHP’s stainless steel mate- have a negative impact on steel tion will likely continue to have a rials and aluminium units made an consumption, according to the negative impact on the country’s underlying operating loss of $66M industry body, which expects steel economy and industrial sectors. project at the half-year to the end of use in China to grow by 4% in both The Middle East and North December, compared to BHP’s 2012 and 2013 to 648.8Mt and Africa will see steel consumption underlying operating profit of 674.8Mt respectively. According to rebound by 5.7% this year after a $15.7bn. this forecast, in 2013, Chinese 2% drop last year on the back of consumption will be 61% higher political turmoil. Manufacturing boost The UK manufacturing sector is showing signs of bouncing back from the fragile conditions seen at Baosteel considering the end of 2011 and start of 2012, and sentiment has improved for the first time in a year, UK’s CBI reports. relocating from Shanghai Rio Tinto and Chinalco’s sub- sidiary, Chalco, have completed China’s coke output to slow Shanghai Baosteel Group Corp its sales revenue to RMB70bn a the formation of their joint venture China’s coking industry is likely to may consider moving its produc- year by 2015. (JV) to develop and operate the see slower growth at the rate of tion base out of the city in In addition, Baosteel is prepar- Simandou iron ore project in output and sales in 2012 on the response to environmental con- ing to produce iron and steel in Guinea, following the completion slowing worldwide economy and cerns about its operation. Zhanjiang, Guangdong province. of all Chinese regulatory slack demand from the steel indus- Xu Lejiang, chairman of The plan is awaiting approval from approvals. try, says the China Coking Industry Baosteel, said local officials had central government. As a result, a consortium led by Association. once treated his company as if it Experts said Baosteel will be Chalco has made a payment of The association forecasts that were some kind of a ‘fortune cook- able to expand in the steel business US$1.35bn, in line with an agree- China’s apparent consumption of ie’, but that it has recently become by seeking development opportu- ment reached with Rio Tinto in crude steel may exceed 700Mt in a piece of ‘smelly tofu’ in their nities outside Shanghai. March 2010. 2012 with a growth of 4% year-on- eyes. The 12th Five-Year Plan (2011- Rio Tinto and the Chalco con- year, compared to the 6.4% growth Xu said the government and cit- 15) for the steel industry, which sortium now hold a 53% and 47% in 2011. izens have become eager to protect was issued by the Ministry of interest respectively in the JV The domestic demand for coke is the environment in recent years, a Industry and Information which translates into a 50.35% and expected to rise 3% y-o-y to 440- change that has put greater pres- Technology, calls for moving steel 44.65% interest in the Simandou 450Mt in 2012. sures on corporations. manufacturing bases out of urban project. Baosteel has built several manu- areas. The remaining 5% is held by the facturing bases in China and is The plan says several steel man- International Finance expected to expand production ufacturing bases, including Corporation, part of the World VISIT: capacity in the future. Masteel (Hefei) Iron and Steel Co, Bank. The Government of Guinea www.steeltimesint.com The company plans to invest in a subsidiary of Maanshan Iron & retains its options for participation To see a full list of news and its subsidiary Xinjiang Bayi Iron & Steel Co Ltd in Anhui province, in the project and is expected to features. Steel Co Ltd to boost its annual might be moved out of urban take up its first share in the near production capacity to 15Mt and areas. future.

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www.steeltimesint.com World News News in Brief

Siemens acquisition Redcar Arcelor forecasts Siemens MT has acquired the US engineering company FCE, head- quartered in Huntingdon Valley, restart higher profits in Q2 Pennsylvania, USA. Founded in 2003, FCE provides core UK’s largest blast furnace was relit ArcelorMittal forecast higher prof- “Although impacted by seasonal sales, engineering, equipment sup- on 15 April 2012 after 26 months it in the second quarter after sur- factors in the first quarter, our ply and project management expert- of being idled. prisingly strong earnings in the first mining business remains a key area ise in strip and plate heat treating Thailand’s largest steel company, three months of the year. for growth and we are targeting a furnaces. Sahaviriya Steel Industries (SSI) The Luxembourg-based compa- further increase in production in FCE will become the global centre of purchased the former Corus fur- ny said demand grew in North 2012,” he continued. competence for reheating furnaces nace from India’s Tata Steel in America in the automotive, con- The group said the improve- within Siemens Metals Technologies. March 2011 for $469M. struction and diggers and white ment would come while shipping The company will continue to oper- Tata Steel mothballed the fur- goods sectors. about the same amount of steel as ate from its Pennsylvania location nace and steel shop with the loss of “Europe remains the biggest in the first quarter. It did not say with around 20 employees who will 1600 jobs in February 2010. challenge and during the first whether the gain would come from be all integrated into the Siemens It followed the withdrawal of quarter we announced the extend- higher prices, lower costs or both. business structure. custom for its output from its main ed idling of a number of facilities ArcelorMittal repeated its fore- customer. The customer, a consor- inline with our strategy of meeting cast that core profit for the first six Indian ore exports to fall tium consisting of Italy’s demand from our more competi- months would be higher than that India’s share of global iron ore Marcegaglia, South Korea’s tive sites,” Chief Executive of the second half of 2011, when it exports is expected to fall from 10% Dongkuk Steel Mill Co, Lakshmi Mittal said. was $4.1bn. in 2010 to 5% in 2012 and amount Luxembourg-based Ternium and to 35-40Mt. Swiss- Italian steelmaker Duferco This is largely due to the increase in Participations Holding walking tax on exported ore to 30% away from a long-term deal. Iron ore platform imposed at the end of 2011 and The deal was to take deliveries also rail transport rates which are of 80% of the steel slab produced An iron ore trading platform made have a greater say in pricing. 4.6 times higher for ore to be at the Teesside complex, but they its China debut as the world's The platform helps it wrest con- exported than that for domestic use. pulled out following the fall in largest buyer of the commodity trol from miners such as Vale, Rio Exports in the FY 2012/13 are demand in 2009 during the world- sought to enhance its price-setting Tinto and BHP Billiton. expected to hit a low of 40Mt, a wide financial crisis which became influence. Top international mining con- drop of 35% over the previous FY evident in Q4 2008. Trading volume is expected to glomerates, along with major year which reached 60Mt, this itself Eventually, Tata Steel were reach approximately 100Mt by the Chinese steel producers including being a decline of 40% from the awarded $130M as settlement end of this year. This will account Baosteel, Hebei Steel and Wuhan 100Mt exported in FY 2010/11. from the violators of the 10-year for about 14% of China’s annual Steel, have all signed up as mem- contract. iron ore imports, said Xu Xu, bers of the electronic platform BAT conclusions for Iron & Steel The assets covered by the sale to chairman of the China Chamber of operated by China Beijing The EU has published its decision SSI include the Redcar Blast Commerce of Metals, Minerals & International Mining Exchange. establishing the best available tech- Furnace, the Redcar and South Chemicals Importers & Exporters. The exchange said the platform niques (BAT) conclusions under Bank coke ovens, TCP’s power The platform will not only help will offer contracts settled in US Directive 2010/75/EU on industrial generation facilities and sinter ensure supplies for China but will dollars and yuan. Cargoes that can emissions for iron and steel produc- plant, and the Lackenby steelmak- also benefit global ore trading, Su be traded include those sitting at tion. ing and casting facilities. Bo, vice-minister of industry and bonded warehouses, being trans- The BAT conclusions are legally The deal also includes Tata Steel information technology, said. ported at sea or stacked in domes- binding for the permits of new and and SSI entering into a joint ven- Nearly all ore sold to China is tic ports as well as futures, ore that existing installations. In addition, ture to operate Redcar Wharf based on spot prices, with the has yet to be mined. Best Available Techniques Associated (TCP’s bulk terminal), giving Tata industry evolving over the past two The exchange has said banks Emission Levels (BATAELs) specifically Steel the flexibility to use Teesside years after four decades of pre-set and financial firms would not be for iron and steel process gases will to serve its other steelmaking oper- annual contracts. allowed to participate in a bid to be established in the BAT reference ations, while also meeting SSI’s China has argued that it should stem speculation. document for large combustion requirements on Teesside. plants (LCPs) by 2015. The reopening of the 3.6Mt/y Commission decision: furnaces has created 1700 jobs on http://eur-lex.europa.eu the site and has cost around £2M. Jindal buys Apollo Source: Eurofer Initially, output is planned for over Contact: [email protected] 8000t/day increasing this to 10 000t/d by the end of 2012. iron ore stake Baosteel output falls 5.2% The iron will be converted into Baoshan Iron and Steel (Baosteel), steel at the Lackenby steelshop India’s Jindal Steel & Power has a share placement. China’s largest listed steel producer, and cast as slab for export to SSI acquired a 9.25% stake in Apollo spokesman Dominic is expected to produce 25.25Mt of Thailand where it will be rolled to Australian iron ore miner Apollo Tisdell said the funds would be crude steel in 2012, down 5.2% coil. Value added steels will also be Minerals for US$1M. spent drilling the Commonwealth year on year from the 26.64Mt in produced some of which will be Apollo said the acquisition of Hill project in South Australia. Just 2011, said Ma Guoqiang, general offered for sale on the merchant the stake by JSPL was an ‘initial north of Tarcoola, that prospect manager of Baosteel, blaming the market. investment’ and that the Indian appears well located, with nearby sale of its stainless and special steel The relighting of the blast fur- steelmaker was expected to make railways linking Darwin to divions to parent company Baosteel nace, Europe’s second largest, was a significant investment in the Adelaide and Adelaide to Perth. Group for the decline. carried out by 11-year-old Wills company. Jindal is reported to be also Waterfield. His father, Geoff Apollo has no mine to speak of scouting a coal acquisition in Waterfield, who died in August but boasts two promising explo- Australia. VISIT: aged 43, was the union leader who ration plays, one in the Pilbara and It already owns coal tenements www.steeltimesint.com led the Save Our Steel campaign one in South Australia. in Queensland and a quarter of To see a full list of news and which helped give the site a future Jindal’s spend will add to $1.6M ASX-listed miner Rocklands features. and generated employment. raised by Apollo earlier this year in Richfield.

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Taiwan in Rio Tinto confident but Kobe hit Vietnam deal warns on future costs by costs China Steel Corp, Taiwan’s largest Rio Tinto is more confident about “Increasing costs are an indus- Consolidated segment sales for steelmaker, has signed a co-opera- the health of the global economy try-wide problem, particularly in Kobe Steel’s steel business in fiscal tion agreement with China’s than it was six months ago, accord- hotspots like Queensland, and I 2011 were flat year on year, at Wuhan Steel and Iron Group to ing to chairman Jan Du Plessis. am determined to be on the front US$10.69bn. secure its upstream supply in At its annual general meeting, foot in tackling this challenge,” Rio Ordinary income declined Vietnam. Mr Du Plessis praised the Tinto chief executive Tom 38.4bn yen, to a loss of The deal will help China Steel European Central Bank for it's Albanese said. US$182.8M. Although sales prices secure stable sources of upstream efforts to keep Europe's troubles The comments follow an unusu- went up, ordinary income was material supply to compete in the in check over recent months. ally vocal campaign mounted by largely affected by the rise in raw ASEAN market, while enabling But he also made pointed refer- Mr Albanese highlighting soaring material prices. Wuhan Steel and Iron Group to ence to recent election results in costs in Australia that have made The Steel Business produced stabilise market conditions. Greece and France, which saw vot- coal projects hard to justify, while 7.16Mt crude steel in FY2011 The Chinese steelmaker has also ers reject austerity policies. touting the superior profitability of down -5.8% on FY2010. gained approval to invest in build- “Recent events have shown that its iron ore operations. Sales reached 6.01Mt (6.38Mt ing a new steel mill near the border the situation is clearly not resolved Rio Tinto, the world’s second- 2010) and 26.2% of output was between Vietnam and China. and the potential for contagion largest miner of iron ore after exported (on a value basis) (27.1% The project, designed to con- continues to linger,” he said. Brazil’s Vale, currently runs its in 2010). The average of domestic struct an integrated steel mill with He added that the outlook for Australian iron ore mines at a rate and export selling price was 88600 annual output of 10Mt. China may not be as bullish as of 230Mt/y and has put in place yen/t ($1109/t) up 6.5% on It will produce steel sheet main- recent years, but was still good and work to take output to 283Mt/y. FY2010. ly for automobiles, will help the would outperform the global out- “Everything is now in place for The sales volume of steel prod- investor to further compete against look. Rio warned that rising costs the expansion to 283Mt and ucts decreased in FY2011 in com- its rivals, including Baosteek are the key challenge it faces but potentially to 353Mt,” Mr parison to the previous year due to Group and Formosa Plastic that would not deter it from Albanese said. the Great East Japan Earthquake, Group, in the Southeast Asian expanding its iron ore operations That decision has yet to go the flooding in Thailand, the sluggish market. in Australia. board. overseas market, the high value of On another front, China Steel the yen, and other factors. has decided to focus its business Through negotiations with its cus- development on the midstream tomers, Kobe Steel was able to segment for cold rolled steels. It is increase the prices of steel prod- to build a NT$30bn ($1.44M) Port Talbot skip car ucts year on year, to reflect higher plant in Vietnam, which is sched- raw material prices. uled to be online with an annual Sales of steel castings and forg- output of 1.2Mt/y in 2013. winch upgrade ings decreased year on year, due to lower sales prices to the shipbuild- ing industry. On the other hand, sales of tita- Gerdau nium products went up year on year, owing to rising demand in infrastructure projects from devel- invests oping countries. http://www.steeltimesint.com/ Gerdau is to invest $21.6M into its news/view/kobe-steel-fy-2011-hit- Monroe, USA plant, bringing the by-raw-material-costs/ total investment there to nearly $150M over the past two years. Gerdau Special Steel North America said the move will VSP iron increase the plant’s straightening and quality-inspection capabilities. The company, a subsidiary of ore rights Brazilian steel manufacturer Visakhaptnam Steel Plant (VSP)– Gerdau, is based near Jackson, operated by state owned Rashtriya Mich. Ispat Nigam Ltd, is to be allocated The improvements in Monroe, ore mining rights in Andhra first announced in 2010, include Tata Steel has commissioned because it will carry the heaviest Pradesh, according to the state’s new equipment and infrastructure. Qualter Hall to build an upgraded loads at the fastest speeds. The Chief Minister. All together, they’re expected to replacement Skip Car Winch for existing Skip Car Winch to be Indian group VSP has lacked its increase the plant’s production Port Talbot steelworks. replaced, was supplied new by own mining concessions and hence capacity to 800kst/y by the second Qualter Hall is to supply a Needham Brothers, now a Qualter has to buy ore on the open market half of 2013. replacement 2 x 1250kW Skip Car Hall Company, in 1992 and will which is costing it some INR5000/t Work continues on the first Winch, designed for both single have been in service for 20 years at more than its domestic competi- stage of upgrades, and is expected and double motor operation, for the time of this year’s re-build. tors with captive ore supplies. to be completed this summer. the 2012 re-build and upgrade of The work is taking place over a VSP currently has an ironmak- In Monroe, Gerdau primarily the No 4 Blast Furnace. 10 month period and will include ing capacity of around 3.4Mt from makes steel bars for the automo- Its function is to hoist fully- the design, manufacture, testing, two 12m hearth blast furnaces but tive industry. It also provides com- laden skips to load the furnace. site installation and commission- is in the progress of nearly dou- ponents for agricultural and heavy This is to be the largest Skip Car ing, along with the dismantling and bling output to 6.3Mt/y by the end industrial machinery. Winch in the UK, so defined removal of existing equipment. of the year.

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World News www.steeltimesint.com

Aperam OneSteel name Danieli replaces change to Arrium grows scrap

DC drives OneSteel has revealed its new under consideration for several processing name will be Arrium Ltd as the months, and was designed to bet- Siemens has won an order to company seeks to shift its public ter reflect OneSteel’s exposure to Danieli & C Officine Meccaniche replace the existing DC main image away from the struggling iron ore and mining services. has bought scrap processing equip- drives of the finishing mill at steel sector. Last year OneSteel spent more ment firm Akros Henschel. Aperam’s stainless steel plant in The new name was launched at than $300M acquiring the iron ore Akros Henschel is involved in Chatelet, Belgium with more pow- a function in Melbourne featuring assets of WPG Resources, and the hydraulic scrap shears, balers, pre- erful AC systems. the company’s chief executive company hopes to be exporting up shredders and vertical grinders and The drives will be modernised in Geoff Plummer. to 11Mt of iron ore within a year. has delivered more than 450 large seven stages during scheduled Mr Plummer said the name Iron ore is a key ingredient in scrap processing machines world- annual maintenance stoppages, OneSteel had served the company steel making, but in recent times it wide. completion is expected by the end well over the years, but had has been more profitable for com- The deal will see Danieli take of 2019. The first conversion work become an impediment to attract- panies such as OneSteel to export control of primary manufacturing is planned for mid-2013. ing investors – particularly those the commodity rather than turn it facilities in Chambéry, France and Siemens will supply the motors, from overseas – in recent times. into steel. Kassel, Germany. Both of these converters and transformers and He said the entire rebranding As recently as 2007, 92% of the will work alongside existing will handle installation supervision, process would cost the company company’s assets were classed as Danieli facilities in Italy, Thailand, commissioning and training. less than one million dollars. Australasian steel. According to China and India. The on-going All seven stands will be Shareholders will have the chance the company’s most recent half- business will adopt the name equipped with identical compact to vote on the name change at an year report, that category now rep- Danieli Henschel. 12MW machines which will be extraordinary general meeting in resents 47% of the company's Danieli is one of the world’s used for the first time. May. The new name had been assets. largest integrated engineering and Aperam has six production sites manufacturing groups with rev- in Europe and Brazil with a capac- enues of more than €3bn. ity of 2.5Mt/y of flat stainless steel Emanuele Brusini, Executive products. Its main European stain- Bronx UK Precision Vice President said: “By adding less steel plants are located in large hydraulic scrap shears and Châtelet and Genk, Belgium, and balers we see tremendous opportu- Gueugnon and Isbergues, France. Leveller order nity for further vertical integration of scrap preparation, handling and and commissioning of the machine continuous charging processes once it is delivered to site, ensuring within electric arc furnace (EAF) Krakatau a quick re-start to full production melt shops.” following a brief summer shut- Daniel Damart will adopt a role down period to carry out the in Danieli’s management team. blast installation. Over the past 60 years, Bronx furnace has supplied more than 500 Precision Levelling machines PT Krakatau Steel, Indonesia’s worldwide to improve strip flat- Dumping largest steelmaker is to go ahead ness. with the building of a blast furnace Strip received directly from the this year at a cost of $601M rolling mill can have inherent probe despite total profits falling 3.6% to shape defects as a result of rolling Rp 1.02tr (US$111.18M) and which need to be removed before China’s Ministry of Commerce operating profits crashing 65% to further cutting and forming opera- (MOC) said the European Union Rp358bn on rising costs of inputs. tions are performed to the (EU) and Japan have been dump- Presently Krakatau Steel pro- required accuracy. This machine ing certain high-performance duces DRI using natural gas. The includes the latest Bronx Auto Pre- stainless steel seamless tubes onto new blast furnace will have a set System ensuring results are the Chinese market. capacity of 1.2Mt/y and is planned achieved consistently. Investigations showed the for completion in 2014. UK group Bronx Engineering is to During the past 10 years, Bronx dumping has ‘substantially Chinese state owned supply a Precision Leveller for high has refined its technology to meet harmed’ Chinese producers, and Metallurgical Group Corp (MCC) strength materials. the needs of today’s markets and importers of those products will have been awarded the contract to It has taken an order from a has focussed on the special have to pay anti-dumping deposits build the furnace. Iron production West Midlands, UK steel processer requirements of the automotive to China’s customs authorities. capacity will then total 1.74Mt and for a 17 roll Precision Leveller to steel industry making Bronx the China launched anti-dumping steelmaking capacity to 2.1Mt over process high strength materials to ideal partner for projects in this probes into certain high-perform- the present 1.8Mt. be used in automotive and struc- field worldwide. ance stainless steel seamless tubes Krakatau Steel produces hot tural applications. In 2010, Bronx won the Black made in the EU and Japan in rolled coil and plans to expand the The new machine will replace an Country Chamber of Commerce September last year. The deposits capacity of its mill to 3.4Mt by existing machine in a press feed Award for Export for business suc- will be charged in accordance with 2014 from the current 2.4Mt. line and will improve the flatness cess in countries such as India, the dumping margins of different quality of metal strip allowing fur- Russia and South Africa. producers, at rates ranging from VISIT: ther laser profiling and forming Bronx will work with local com- 9.7% to 39.2% of the customs www.steeltimesint.com operations to perform to a higher panies MI Engineering, BES value of the imported goods. To see a full list of news and standard of accuracy demanded by Controls and Volkobind Source China Metals features. the automotive sector. Bronx engi- Engineering for the supply of the E-mail: neers will oversee the installation machine. [email protected]

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www.steeltimesint.com News and Statistics Events Diary

UK Steel – Alacero: Consumption JUNE 2012 10-12 Arab Steel Summit 2012 Beiruit, Lebanon Annual to rise to 63Mt in 2012 www.arabsteel.info Steel consumption in Latin which use steel as a raw material, 10-13 Scanmet IV Review America is expected to reach 63Mt as well as infrastructure investment Luleå, Sweden in 2012, up 6.8% from 59Mt in plans and construction in most http://www.scanmet.info/ Crude steel production in UK fell 2011, according to data released countries’ in Latin America, Raul to 9.5Mt in 2011 of which 6.9Mt by Brazil’s Steel Institute (ABM). Gutierrez Muguerza, president of 18-20 27th Steel Success was via the BOS route and 2.5Mt The data report, published in Alacero, said Strategies by the EAF. conjunction with the Latin “However, we must show cau- New York, USA Output fell 2% compared with American Association of Steel tion in relation to the external con- www.worldsteeldynamics.com 2010 and was down 5.9% com- (Alacero), also forecast a further text, given the risk of a worsening pared with the poor year of 2009 6.4% rise in consumption in 2013, of the Euro sovereign debt crisis 19-21 International Metal & due to the idling of the Teesside to 67Mt. and/or a major deceleration in Metallurgy Exhibition plant in 2010. The increase is ‘driven by high China, which could result in lower Guangzhou, China Apparent demand for steel also levels of activity in the sectors growth in the region,” he added. http://www.julang.com.cn/english/Ex slowed in the first three quarters hibition.asp 2011 from 2.6Mt in Q1 to 2.4Mt in Q3. Imports averaged 54% of 25-27 18th Iron Ore Symposium demand during these three quar- March global steel Amsterdam, The Netherlands ters. http://www.metalbulletin.com/EventD UK mills home deliveries fell etails/0/4740/18th-International-Iron- 0.7% in 2011 despite direct deliver- production up 1.8% Ore-Symposium.html ies to customers being up 2.5%, but deliveries to stockholders fell 3.7%. World crude steel production for South Korea’s production was 6.0 26-28 Expo Steel - 23rd Brazilian Imports increased 9.9% and the 62 countries reporting to the Mt, an increase of 3.2%. conference exports fell 3.1% compared with World Steel Association (world- Within the EU, Germany pro- Sao Paulo, Brazil 2010 largely due to a 20% fall in the steel) was 132Mt in March 2012, duced 3.9Mt of crude steel in http://www.acobrasil.org.br/congres- export of semis offset by a 1% rise an increase of 1.8% compared to March, a decrease of -3.1% on so2012/eng/ in the export of finished products. March 2011. March 2011. Italy produced programa.php The 2011 Annual Review of Production for the first quarter 2.7Mt, up 4.5%, France produced UK’s steel industry is now avail- of 2012 was 377Mt, 1.1% higher 1.5Mt, an increase of 3.8% and 28 European Steel Day able from UK Steel as a download than the first quarter of 2011. Spain’s crude steel production was Square Centre Brussels at http://www.eef.org.uk/NR/rdon- In the first three months of 1.3Mt, down -19.5% compared to Contact [email protected] lyres/8ADC4CFB-BF8E-4A0B- 2012, Asia produced 241.7Mt of the same month in 2011. 9B14-550BADA6CD46/20613/ crude steel, an increase of 1.5% In contrast, Turkey’s crude steel AUGUST 2012 UKSteelAnnualReview2011.pdf or over Q1 2011, EU countries pro- production for March 2012 was 22-24 The 9th China (Beijing) hard copy on application duced 43.9Mt, down -3.9% and 3.1Mt, an increase of 14.5% com- International Metallurgy Industry [email protected] North American production was pared to March 2011. Expo 2012 31.2 Mt, 6.7% higher than the first Brazil’s crude steel production China National Convention Center, three months of 2011. for March 2012 was 3.1Mt, 2.2% Beijing, China The USA produced 7.8Mt of higher than March 2011. http://www.bcime.com/en/ crude steel in March 2012, up The world crude steel capacity Largest 5.4% on March 2011. utilisation ratio of the 62 countries SEPTEMBER 2012 China’s crude steel production in March 2012 increased to 81.1%, 3-4 Steel Tech Seminar 2012 for March 2012 was 61.6Mt, an 1.6% higher than February 2012. Kolkata India Organised by Steel Tech melt unit increase of 3.9% compared to Compared to March 2011, the & Steel Times International March 2011. utilisation ratio in March 2012 http://www.steeltechexpo.com/ Tenova achieved the first heat of Elsewhere in Asia, Japan pro- decreased by -1.2%. the biggest Melting Unit ever built duced 9.3Mt of crude steel in For a full listing of output visit 5-7 10th China International in China for MCC Beris Jiangsu March 2012, up 2.3% compared to http://www.worldsteel.org/statis- Coking Technology and Coke Heavey Industry Corporation - the same month last year and tics/crude-steel-production.html Market Congress Feida Group: a highly innovative Beijing, China Medium and Heavy Plate Casting- For full listing of monthly statistics by country visit www.coke-china.com rolling Production Line. www.worldsteel.org/?action=stats&type=steel&period=latest The benefits offered by the tech- 19-22 Korean International Steel nology provided, which combines & Non-Ferrous Metals Industries Tenova EAF and Consteel with Expo 2012 (KISNON) other forefront technologies in Airfloat wins award Kintex Expo Centre, Goyang, S Korea China from Beris, permit unprece- The Steel Manufacturers bly, disassembly and transport of www.kisnon.com dented flexibility in operations and Association (SMA) has named backup chocks used in the manu- production capacity together with Airfloat the recipient of its 2012 facture of rolled steel. 22-24 China (Chongqing) emission reduction. Recognition in Innovation Award. The machine uses air bearing International Metallurgy Industry The plant is located in Jiangsu Last year, the company designed technology to float 30 000lb Expo 2012 province, an industrial area near and built a machine for the assem- (13.6t) bearing housings on a thin Chongqing International Convention Shanghai which is home to China’s film of compressed air. & Exhibition Center, China most advanced production facili- The Airfloat transporter is a fab- www.dccybj.com ties. ricated steel structure, constructed It is equipped with a of heavy-walled structural tube VISIT: Consteel system and a and laser-cut steel plate. It is www.steeltimesint.com 250t/h EAF feeding a con- designed for operation with plant To see a full listing of industry tinuous casting unit for slab air systems on approximately 300 events click on ‘events diary’ production. SCFM of air at 80psi.

8 – May/June 2012 – Steel Times International www.steeltimesint.com USA_Layout 1 5/16/12 2:26 PM Page 1

USA Update

American steel industry taking manufacturing out of recession

The US steel industry is playing a pivotal role in leading the US economy out of the longest post-World War II recession which has had a severe impact on the country’s employment situation. By Manik Mehta, New York

FOR every person directly employed in steel, Gibson has been calling for a long-term solu- trade advantage, it is not easy to exactly pin- seven other jobs are created in supporting the tion with consistent funding to enable states to point how China ‘manipulates’ the value of its industry and supplying services to its employ- plan large construction projects that would currency. ees. This is the underlying message conveyed in address the country’s infrastructure problems a recent report by Timothy J Considine, profes- and also bolster economic growth. India calls on WTO sor of energy economics at the University of The aim of exerting such pressure is to Meanwhile, steel traders are closely watching Wyoming. The report calculates that the US strengthen construction which, in turn, will bol- the trade dispute case initiated by India chal- steel industry supported over one million jobs ster steel consumption. Surma also pointed out lenging US duties on certain India-made steel in the country in 2011. Deriving a ‘multiplier’ that the condition of the nation’s infrastructure products, the World Trade Organisation recent- effect of x7, the steel industry’s direct employ- was deteriorating and its improvement should ly confirmed. Without divulging details, the ment of 150 700 people contributed, directly or be given a “high priority”. WTO said that India had called for ‘consulta- indirectly, to supporting more than 1 022 009 According to Gibson, the industry would pre- tions’ with the United States – a term that sug- jobs nationwide. fer the “longest, most-robustly funded” bill gests the first stage of a formal trade dispute – Considine’s report further says that the which Congress can produce. over US countervailing duties which are, in nation’s steel industry has been crucial in lead- Construction plays a crucial role to revive effect, punitive high import tariffs imposed to ing manufacturing’s post-recession resurgence and sustain the steel industry’s growth. safeguard against suspected use of subsidies to primarily because it is highly interrelated with Strengthening the construction sector would gain unfair trade advantage. many other sectors of the economy. also benefit the steel industry particularly at a India reacted angrily when the US In his report, Considine points out that the time when most US steel manufacturers, Department of Commerce imposed a so-called significant economic impact of the industry is according to analysts, will report lower first- preliminary import duty of close to 286% on based on the fact that steel is the most prevalent quarter earnings and see little improvement spiral welded carbon steel pipes from India to material in the economy, and the steel industry until the construction industry rebounds. offset government subsidies. A final decision on purchases a wide variety of inputs from other Analysts say that while demand for steel has duty rates is expected by August. industries that create a favourable ripple effect. picked up in the auto industry and some A group of US companies including Allied “This is one reason why so many countries machinery sectors, the construction sector, Tube and Conduit, JMC Steel Group, around the world welcome investments that which is the steel industry’s biggest market, has Wheatland Tube and United States Steel Corp establish steel mills, because they stimulate been lagging behind. had filed a petition with the government in industrial supply chains,” he said. But some say that the outlook for the second 2011 for import relief. An Indian steel company quarter is much better because construction executive, insisting on remaining anonymous Election year issues usually picks up when the weather is warm and because he was only giving his personal views, Meanwhile, the steel industry is highlighting its better suited for building. told Steel Times International that the US had priorities in an election year when politicians Steel prices rose in the early part of the first possibly imposed the countervailing duty tend to be ‘more sensitive’ to the needs of the quarter but continued to remain below the because some of the iron ore used for the man- industry. The industry sees its most important year-earlier period. A ton of hot-rolled coil was ufacture of pipes originated from the state- priorities as lower corporate tax rates, sounder recently selling in some parts of the country for owned ore-mining company NMDC which also energy policy, better infrastructure, less burden- $685 which was nearly 22% lower than the supplies steel manufacturing companies such as some regulations and fair trade. $875 a year ago. Tata Steel Ltd, Jindal Steel & Power Ltd and US Steel’s chairman and CEO John P Surma The industry is, meanwhile, closely monitor- the Essar Group. The US feels that NMDC, said that enacting measures to address these ing steel imports and the practices of US trad- being a state-owned company, is selling the iron concerns would strengthen an industry that is ing partners. Finished steel imports in 2011 ore at very low prices and, in effect, subsidising leading the nation out of the recession. He jumped 22% over the previous year, with South private-sector companies. made these comments during a conference call Korea, China and Japan being the three largest The Indian government has countered that by the American Iron and Steel Institute, an sources in 2011. Imports further surged 30% in argument by saying that iron ore prices in India industry group which Surma also heads. His the first three months of 2012 over the year-ear- were decided by the domestic market. India’s comments were also endorsed by the AISI pres- lier period, with South Korea, Turkey and Japan steel industry is growing at a rapid pace and, ident and CEO Thomas Gibson who disclosed being the top three nations supplying. according to the US, the Indian government is that the AISI was urging Congress to approve a Surma reinforced the industry’s resolve to resorting to this and other measures to improve long-term transportation bill that is being have “strict enforcement of our trade laws”. supply and lower prices of inputs. The US has described as “crucially important” for the The AISI has urged Congress to take action forwarded to the WTO a list of 50 Indian gov- industry. A temporary measure was passed against what it describes as ‘unfair trade prac- ernment measures which, in its view, constitut- recently that extends highway funding for 90 tices’ by China and any other source nation that ed unfair subsidies that had not been notified days, though questions concerning limits on “artificially undervalues its currency”. Although as prescribed under WTO regulations, and spending and funding of the project remained ‘currency manipulation’ has been a widely used threatened it would impose duties on them if unresolved. term to suggest that China is getting an unfair India did not notify them promptly. ᔢ

*STI New York correspondent

CORRECTION steel importers and some exporters but not steel which is a high cost producer but the issue of producers. imports of subsidised steel. In the April USA Update the AIIS was incor- The American Iron & Steel Institute (AISI) Regarding the ‘Buy America’ (para 8) these rectly referred to in paragraph 6 as the represents steel producers in USA. are long standing provisions enacted many ‘American Institute of Iron and Steel’. This In the context of the article, AIIS wish to decades ago and are consistent with WTO regu- should have been the ‘American Institute for point out that the issue regarding imports from lations which allow US tax-payer financed proj- International Steel’ which primarily represents China is not one of ‘cheap’ steel from China ects to require the use of US manufactured steel.

10 – May/june 2012 – Steel Times International www.steeltimesint.com LA_Layout 1 5/16/12 11:35 AM Page 1

LA Update

The value of Brazil’s steel industry to the economy by boosting demand for other industries

A recent report on the importance of the steel industry to the Brazilian economy put its value at US$83.4bn in 2010 – 4% of GDP – in terms of direct, indirect and induced contributions to the economy and it accounts for 3.25M jobs representing 2.8% of the total labour force when downstream industries are taken into account. The ‘multiplication’ factor in terms of jobs created is a massive 23.57 compared with 5.8 for the USA. By Germano Mendes de Paula*

THE steel industry has been receiving consider- The USA experience capital (21.9%). The mass of workers directly able attention from policy makers – in particu- In March 2012, the American Iron and Steel employed in the sector was also substantial: lar in the initial stages of industrialisation – due Association (AISI) published a study entitled 138 000 employees. to its high inter-industry linkages. This is the ‘Economic Impacts of the American Steel When the indirect and induced impacts are reason why many governments have fostered Industry’, written by Prof Timothy J Considine, also taken into account the importance of steel the steel industry within their territories, some- University of Wyoming. According to this industry is enhanced substantially (Table 1). times via the establishment of State-Owned report, in 2010 the US steel industry directly The total impact on GDP achieved $83.44bn in Enterprises. contributed $17.5bn of added value, $40bn of 2010, representing a 5.56 multiplier – very close It may be argued that there is a general per- indirect value via supply chain spending, and to that of the USA. This translates into 4.0% of ception that, as a consequence of the reduction induced another $35.8bn as households spent GDP. of industrial activities as a proportion of GDP the income generated from these activities. As it can be also seen in Table 1, the multi- in many industrialised countries (a process gen- Thus, the net contribution to the US economy plier for labour income was 6.86, while this erally denominated as de-industrialisation), the by the steel industry was $93.4bn. The econom- index for taxes and surplus were, respectively, relevance of the links derived between the steel ic multiplier was 5.3. 2.53 and 11.0. More importantly, the sector industry and other industries has also declined. In addition, the steel industry directly employed 138 000 people in 2010, but its indi- However, new evidence has demonstrated that employed over 139 000 workers, supported rect and induced impact achieved more than 3 this assumption is incorrect. Indeed, steel another 361 000 workers indirectly through the million jobs. As a consequence, the employ- industry has maintained its prominent role in supply chain, and induced spending by house- ment multiplier was 23.57, due to the steel terms of economic linkages. holds generated another 443 000 jobs in other industry’s impact into sectors of high labour sectors of the economy. In total, the steel indus- intensity. This multiplier is considerable higher Some concepts try supported 943 000 jobs in the US economy than that in the USA. One possible explana- Inter-industry links have been studied since the during 2010. In summary, for every job directly tion is the lower average wage in Brazil, com- late-1950s with the purpose of identifying key created in the steel industry another 5.8 jobs pared with the USA. The steel industry in industries that are central for economic devel- are generated elsewhere in the USA. Brazil, through its total impact, is responsible opment. This literature is highly influenced by for the generation of 2.8% of the country’s Albert Hirschman’s seminal book ‘Strategy of Brazilian experience employment. Economic Development’(1), published in 1958. The Brazilian Steel Institute (IABr) has Hypothetically, if the Brazilian steel industry According to him, the linkage concept is gener- released a comprehensive study on the coun- ceased to exist, not only would domestic steel alised to the observation that on-going activities try’s steel sector last December. The study was no longer be produced, but as employees of the induce agents to take up new activities. undertaken by the Getúlio Vargas Foundation mills would no longer have an income they He identifies ‘Backward’ linkage effects (FGV), a leading think-thank. One of the chap- could no longer consume products and servic- which are related to the provision of input for a ters was dedicated to the analysis of links. es. Moreover, goods and services required by given business and ‘Forward’ linkage effects According to FGV’s report, the steel indus- the steel industry would no longer be needed. which refer to the use of output in some new try’s backward linkage index in 2010 was 1.10, Therefore, the hypothetical ‘disappearance’ of sectors. above the average value of 1.00 and also above the steel industry would result not only in a ter- Furthermore, if there is an increase in final the median of 1.01, placing the steel industry in mination of steel production, but also a partial demand for a particular product, it is assumed 24th place (among 56 sectors) in this regard. ending of production of goods and services in that there will be an increase in the output of For the forward linkage index, the figures were: 47 other sectors that are influenced, indirectly, that product, as producers react to meet the steel industry (1.69), average (1.00) and medi- by steel production. In this scenario, there growing consumption; this is termed as a ‘direct an (0.72), putting the steel in 10th position in would be a ‘loss’ equivalent to 3.25 million jobs effect’. As these producers raise their output, this particular ranking. and $83.4bn of value added revenue, as indi- there will also be an escalation in demand on By itself, the steel industry is an important cated in the ‘Total Impact’ column of Table 1. their suppliers and so on down the supply productive activity. Both for meeting domestic Summing up, the FGV’s report demonstrates chain; this is the indirect effect. demand and providing exports, the sector’s net that the steel industry in Brazil has an impor- As an outcome of the direct and indirect sales reached $47.3bn in 2010. Its value added tant impact on business (economic multiplier), effects the level of household income through- content was equivalent to $15.3bn in the same but an even greater impact on the labour mar- out the economy will grow as a result of more year, or roughly 0.7% of Brazil’s GDP. The dis- ket (employment multiplier). Maybe, this situa- employment. A proportion of this increased tribution of the value added was headed by tion is similar in other emerging countries, high- income will be re-spent on finished goods and taxes on production (53.5%) followed by labour lighting the strategic role that continued to be services: this is the ‘induced effect’. income (24.5%) and surplus/remuneration of played by the steel industry.

Variable Direct impact Indirect and Total impact Multiplier Participation induced impact in the country

Sales ($bn) 47,316 139,297 186,613 3.94 4.8% Value added ($bn) 15,290 68,149 83,439 5.46 4.0% Labour income ($bn) 3,757 21,997 25,754 6.86 2.9% Taxes on production ($bn) 8,171 12,524 20,695 2.53 6.8% Surplus and capital income ($bn) 3,363 33,629 36,992 11.0 4.2% Employment (k) 138 3,113 3,251 23.57 2.8%

Table 1 Impact of Brazilian steel industry on wealth generation

*Professor in Economics, Federal University of Uberlândia, Brazil. Email [email protected] 1 New Haven, Conn. Yale University Press ISBN 0-300-00559-8

12 – May/June 2012 – Steel Times International www.steeltimesint.com China_Layout 1 5/16/12 11:36 AM Page 1

CHINA Update Chinese steel companies focus on logistics to improve profits

As a result of the declining profits from primary steel production China’s steel mills are increasingly establishing logistics centres to directly process and distribute steel to customers’ requirements. Some of these logistic centres have also embarked on the supply of raw materials to the mills and even steel trading thereby challenging the established independent traders in this field. By Shi Lili*

MOST large and medium sized steel compa- Laigang, Guangsteel, Chuanwei Group, nies and reduce the repeated dealing costs of the nies in China have launched projects to directly Kunsteel Holding, Xinxing Cast Tube, and oth- established logistics chain. Warehousing, trans- supply steel to customers and this trend shows ers who are also about to set up such steel logis- port, and processing of raw materials in such no sign of slowing. Based on the precondition tics zones in various regions of China. Shagang zones can reduce the cost of purchasing raw of having the processing and storage capacity, Group’s project at the Zhangjiagang Meilong materials and their transport for steel companies. there are already over 2000 such ‘service cen- Logistics zone is receiving the greatest invest- This expansion of the industrial supply chain tres’ owned by the steel mills. ment among all these projects. Most large and will bring about positive effects. Based on sta- As domestic steel mills expand into this area, medium sized state owned steel companies tistics from China’s Iron & Steel Association, they connect the chain of steel sales directly to such as Baosteel and Wugang also started con- 36.1% of steel products from the top 80 the steelmaker thus expanding the industrial structing similar logistics zones last year to serve Chinese steel mills were distributed via direct chain, increase the direct feed of their output to the automobile, household appliances and ship supply while the remaining was distributed customers and dramatically reduce costs for the building industries. through retail outlets and traders. whole steel industry. China Minmetal has also disclosed plans to Independent steel trading companies are still This trend is already established in many set up an ‘E-Union of China Steel Logistics,’ presently the major sales channel for steel mills. other countries such as the USA, Japan, and for a digital ‘Wal-Mart’ type of distribution of Thus it is expected that China’s steel companies Europe where mills have long taken ownership steel products. This trading platform will start will increase their focus on direct sales rather of the distribution network and this has always with 12 companies engaged in steel trading, than production, improve their distribution been considered the long term direction of steel logistics zone managing companies and mechanisms, extend their industrial chain and development in China. software companies. foster the processing of steel products. ‘36.1% of steel products from the top 80 Chinese steel mills were distributed via direct Major changes in China’s traders supply while the remaining was distributed through retail outlets and traders’. Because of the present slim profit margins experienced by most of China’s steel mills The entry of steel mills into such downstream Long term trend domestic steel trading companies are also strug- operations is inevitably causing some conflict In the present situation of slim profit margins in gling to avoid losses. Many steel traders with with existing traders as in recent years inde- primary steel production most steel mills are strong capital backing are moving towards pro- pendent traders have increasingly provided pro- entering or considering reducing costs in the viding processing and distribution services to cessing as well as distribution, as well as other production chain by moving into direct cus- their steel consumers. services for downstream steel customers. tomer sales and taking care of processing bulk Such services offered by steel trading compa- steel to customers’ individual needs and quan- nies are very similar to those of the logistics Boom in steel logistic zones tities, thus adding value and profit to the fin- zones being set up by steel mills. But steel mills The Jiangsu Shagang Group has invested over ished product. This is a common point found in can themselves be large steel buyers of semi- 4bn yuan (US$635M) to build up its most steel logistics projects. Based on statistics products or raw materials and this is good for Zhangjiagang Meilong Steel Logistics Zone from the China Iron & Steel Association, the steel trading companies. since the beginning of 2011 to March 2012 and profit achieved for primary steel production by But steel trading companies located in these it plans to put a further 5bn yuan ($794M) into large and medium sized steel companies in logistics zones have to pay rent for their prem- this project this year. Shagang has been trying to February this year reached 548M yuan ($87M), ises while steel mills do not. The relationship push the Meilong Logistics Zone to be the flag- down 106.62% compared with the same month between both parties is becoming increasingly ship for steel logistics, the large scale of the last year. intense as steel mills enter into logistics and project enabling lower handling cost, a greater Investing in steel logistics projects provide an increase the rate of direct supply to customers. range of available processing on offer and a alternative to the steel industry’s primary func- While the steel industries’ processing and high degree of modernisation. tion of producing steel in bulk and so provides a distribution projects have little impact on the Hebei Iron & Steel Group has also decided means of generating more profit. Additional spot market of steel trading they are increasing- to make an investment of 6.8bn yuan or more profits arise from commercial trading, ware- ly competitive with those networks already than $1bn in the construction of a comprehen- house storage, processing such as cut-to-length established by steel traders, and steel mills have sive logistics zone in the Caofeidian economic and slitting, transport of raw materials, distribu- the advantage of capital and influence. development zone located in Hebei province on China’s east coast some 200km southeast of ‘Many steel traders with strong capital backing are moving towards providing processing Beijing and about 80km from the city of and distribution services to their steel consumers’. Tangshan. This project is designed to have an annual freight handling capacity of 30Mt of ore, tion of finished steel products, financial services It will take time to change the division 5.8Mt of finished steel products and 4.2Mt of (mortgage, commodities pledge, etc), rent from between production and distribution, but, if related materials for steel production. This proj- warehouses, spot e-commerce, exchange trad- achieved, this process will change the logistics ect also includes a multi-functional logistics ing, etc. of the whole steel industry. zone to be equipped with comprehensive ware- Some of these projects were established to The sensitive relationship between steel mills housing for other materials required by the steel perform processing and distribution while oth- and steel traders will not alter in a short period, industry, and the processing and distribution of ers are set up to foster raw materials purchasing but some steel traders in China are also looking finished steel products. Trading will be by elec- and supply for primary steel production. elsewhere for profits, for example, speculating tronic dealing on the spot market. China’s domestic steel mills are grasping these on the increase in the value of land. In addition to the Shagang Group and Hebei market changes, and the blind expansion of pro- They are thus stepping into risky industries Iron & Steel setting up such logistic centres, duction capacity could be replaced in this way. such as real estate and financial loans which other companies embarking on similar projects The set-up of such steel logistics zones could pushes up the capital and credit risks of steel include Shougang, Shansteel Group, Jiugang, help open up the sales channel of steel compa- logistics. ᔢ

*STI correspondent in China

14 – May/June 2012 – Steel Times International www.steeltimesint.com AISI myra_Layout 1 5/17/12 3:33 PM Page 1

USA steel

American Iron and Steel Institute calls for further Government intervention

THE American Iron and Steel Institute has a reserves, our nation can lessen its dependence portation authorization bill, which, if passed, mission to influence public policy and educate on foreign oil, create thousands of jobs and spur would include energy and natural resource pro- and shape public opinion in support of a strong, economic growth,” Gibson says. “However, one visions to open up on-shore and offshore bans sustainable US and North American steel the biggest threats in developing our nation’s for oil and gas drilling leases. industry committed to manufacturing products domestic energy sources is overly burdensome Gibson lauded the Senate for doing its job that meet society’s needs. and misguided federal regulations.” and passing a two year, $109bn reauthorization It is comprised of 26 member companies, bill in mid-March. Now, he says the House, including integrated and electric furnace steel- Canada - USA pipeline which has not passed a bill yet, must act and makers, and 130 associate and affiliate mem- Regarding the controversial Keystone XL pass a bill that could be conferenced with the bers who are suppliers to customers of the steel pipeline extension project – a 1897km Senate measure. industry. AISI's member companies represent (1179mile) pipeline from Hardisty, Alberta in The question, however, lies in how to pay for approximately 80% of both US and North Canada to carry crude oil derived from tar such a bill given all the concerns of the bur- American steel capacity. sands to Steele City, Nebraska, USA for geoning US deficit. “Transportation is a core In mid April, the organisation held a Press Conference to address various matters of ‘US steel industry is clearly in recovery mode’ importance to steel producers in North John P Surma, chairman & CEO USS Corp America. John P Surma, chairman and CEO of United onwards transmission to refineries in Illinois function of government and it costs something States Steel Corp, Pittsburgh and also the cur- and on the Gulf Coast at Houston and Port to fund,” Gibson says, however, he observes rent chairman of AISI said that while the US Arthur, Texas, Surma says the AISI supports the that the traditional way to do that, the highway steel industry is clearly in recovery mode, it is entire pipeline, although it is not particularly fund, which is funded by a tax on gasoline, is still facing certain significant challenges to its happy that TransCanada did not buy more US falling short, partly because vehicles are becom- international competitiveness, including bur- sourced material for that project. ing more fuel efficient and Americans are densome tax rates, uncertain energy costs, inad- “(Nevertheless) the ancillary construction asso- changing their driving behavior. He called on equate investments in infrastructure, increasing ciated with the project should it be completed the government to be more creative in finding a regulatory burdens and foreign unfair trade will be good for the steel industry.” funding solution, including possibly more pub- practices. lic/private partnerships. “These issues are not new, but the urgency Transport infrastructure for us to address them is very, very immediate,” AISI is also calling for the US Congress to pass a Call for Fair Trade he stressed. new, robust, long term surface transportation bill Surma added that the AISI is supporting a as opposed to continually extending the old one more effective US trade policy to combat for- Steel drives recovery three months or so at a time. “We must make eign, unfair trading practices, including China’s As highlighted by a recent report written by rebuilding our crumbling transportation infra- “protectionist policy that gives Chinese exports Prof Timothy J Considine, an economist with structure system a top national priority,” Surma an artificial advantage over American goods by the University of Wyoming, the steel industry a says, adding that doing so is essential to doing undervaluing its currency by as much as 30%.” major factor in the recent rebound of the US business efficiently and for the US to maintain Gibson notes that the steel industry celebrat- manufacturing sector, which, according to its dominant role in the global economy. ed a big victory on the trade front in early March when President Obama signed legisla- ‘…….America’s shale gas has the potential to be the most remarkable source of economic tion overturning an erroneous federal Court of growth and prosperity that we will see in our lifetimes……’ Appeals ruling on the application of counter- John P Surma, chairman & CEO USS Corp vailing duty laws against subsidized products, including steel, from China and other non-mar- Thomas J Gibson, AISI’s president and CEO, Just before Congress went on recess in late ket economies. has consistently grown since 2010 and contin- March it passed its ninth 90-day extension of “I think that is proof that when Congress is ues to drive the economy out of the recession. the surface transportation bill, which will guar- faced with time critical problem they can act in Nevertheless, he says there is an urgent need to antee funding for the nation’s bridges, highways a bipartisan manner to solve it.” address key policy issues to help continue the and roads until June 30. While he called that “a significant victory,” resurgence of the steel industry. The report in The US House of Representatives in mid- Gibson says there are still other areas that need summary or full is addressed in more detail in April passed what would be a tenth 90-day to be addressed to make sure the US steel the USA and Latin American Updates in the extension, taking the bill to the end of industry is competing on a level playing field. May/June issue of Steel Times International and September, although that bill is not expected to “It is critical that the Obama administration is available as a download in summary or full as pass the Senate because of factors relating to and Congress continue to pressure foreign gov- a link from the AISI Home page www.steel.org/ the Keystone XL pipeline which is being ernments, such as China, that continue to arti- opposed by some environmental groups. ficially undervalue their currency. We cannot Shale gas vital to development Gibson says these extension of the bill will give a free pass to countries that flagrantly dis- “As an energy intensive industry our competi- not provide the boost that the US economy, regard their WTO commitments,” he adds. tiveness will increase in direct relationship to our ability to capitalize on our nation’s abun- ‘President Obama signed legislation overturning an erroneous federal Court of Appeals dant and affordable energy supply. ruling on the application of countervailing duty laws against subsidized products…’ The discovery and development of North Gibson President & CEO AISI America’s shale (gas) resources has the poten- tial to be the most remarkable source of eco- and the steel industry, needs. “We need a long- Summing up the AISI’s priorities for 2012, nomic growth and prosperity that we will see in term bill with level funding so that the states Surma states, “A strong manufacturing sector our lifetimes,” Surma says, adding that a second can plan the bigger construction projects that creates significant benefits for our society, positive dimension of shale gas resource devel- can produce the valuable jobs and generate the including good paying jobs, investment in opment for the steel industry is that steel pipe demand for steel, concrete and other materials. research and development, critical materials for and tubular products that US steelmakers pro- “Our preference would be the longest, most our national defense and high value exports. duce are integral to the exploration, production robustly funded bill that this Congress can pro- We must address each of these issues if we want and transmission of natural gas and oil. duce,” Surma says, which would be the House our nation’s manufacturing sector to continue “By developing our natural gas and oil leadership’s five-year, $260bn surface trans- to thrive and drive the economic recovery.”ᔢ

16 – May/June 2012 – Steel Times International www.steeltimesint.com zumbach starclad_Layout 1 5/16/12 11:41 AM Page 1

Analysis & testing

Fast and advanced inspection ofof rollsrolls

A roll inspection system, which can be mounted on the roll grinding machine, offers the option of combined eddy current and ultrasonic inspection, has resulted in a reduction of in-service roll spalls from 29 in a year to just two.

THE production efficiency of both hot and es’ resulting from changes in surface hardness cold mills in the steel and non-ferrous indus- or material structure of the roll. It can be tries is heavily dependent on the surface and applied while simultaneously grinding the roll sub surface integrity of the mill rolls, making a and has two versions of supply, one, a two fast and advanced roll inspection system essen- probe system for slower inspection normally tial in roll grinding workshops. associated with the slower grinding speeds used Sheffield based Sarclad responded by pio- when grinding cold mill rolls, and the second is neering the first generation of its Rollscan sys- an eight probe system, normally associated with tems in the early 1980’s and has since sold over the faster grinding speeds used for hot mill 550 units worldwide. Working closely with its rolls. customers, Sarclad has been proactive in devel- oping Rollscan to meet changes in roll shop Ultrasonic inspection working practices, advances in roll technology Both of the eddy current options can be com- and metallurgy, as well as enhanced thresholds bined with a non-contact sub-surface ultrasonic of permissible roll defects. inspection, used for detecting internal defects At the same time, Sarclad has incorporated such as non-metallic inclusions, porosity and advances in computer technology providing an bond interface separation. A flow of water is enhanced operating experience whilst offering used as the contact media during ultrasonic improved defect detection to meet the high inspection and this mode of operation cannot demands of modern mills. The advances in be performed while simultaneously grinding. Rollscan have resulted in a significantly lower Typically, the results from a roll’s pre-grinding requirement for manual NDT specialists. In inspection scan are used to determine whether Rollscan in operation showing dual measur- addition, Rollscan offers the benefit of being it is serviceable, or should be withdrawn for fur- ing head traversing parallel to the axis of able to be networked for retrieval of inspection ther inspection or scrapping. For rolls being the rotating roll while grinding proceeds data from remote locations such as the operator passed for regrinding the Rollscan operator pulpit or office PC. It can also present data in a interface displays defects and shows them being The Sarclad Rollscan system contributes to format for integration with and manipulation by removed in real time with each grinding pass. improved roll life and significant decreases of in a Roll Shop Management System. This allows the operator to grind with knowl- service roll failures. This results in increased pro- Rollscan has the option for combining both edge returning the roll to the mill with mini- duction, improved product quality and a rapid eddy current surface inspection and ultrasonic mum stock removal and the assurance that the pay back from the resulting financial savings.
subsurface inspection as individual units or as a roll is fit for operation. combined system, with part control by the The effectiveness of Sarclad’s Rollscan can Contact grinder CNC. be demonstrated by the experience of a steel Adrian Leek, Head of Sales and Marketing producer in the USA who before purchasing Tel +44 (0) 1142 939300 Eddy current inspection two units had 29 roll spalls in one year. A sub- [email protected] www.sarclad.com The eddy current surface inspection system is a sequent reduction to just two roll spalls in a UK - Head Office, Sarclad Ltd, non contact process which detects any cracks year resulted in the rapid acquisition of a fur- Advanced Manufacturing Park, Whittle Way, breaking through to the roll surface and ‘bruis- ther unit. Rotherham S60 5BL, UK New in-line profile gauge for long product mills A NEW addition has been made to Zumbach High reliability in operation is also guaran- Electronic’s profile gauges for steel and metal teed thanks to a sophisticated, multi stage pro- profiles. The gauge is based on triangulation by tection and purging/cooling system. camera vision, often also called the ‘light cut’ Another key advantage is the trouble-free principle. maintenance with quick and easy access to all Four lasers ‘mark’ the contour of the product maintenance points.
while four matrix cameras each capture a large number of pixels of the laser beam projected on Contact the product contour. Zumbach Electronic AG, PO Box, CH-2552 Orpund, Switzerland Highly developed software combines the Tel +41 (0)32 356 04 00 four pictures to the true, orthogonal section of e-mail [email protected] the profile. All critical dimensions, angels and www.zumbach.com radii can be programmed together with their tolerances. Operators and supervisors can not only mon- Key Data itor the true profile as a 1:1 section online, but also see irregular faults such as seems, concave Measuring field: or convex shapes etc. 300 x 300mm, 4 views All rounds as well as all standard profiles such No of lasers and cameras: as H, I, U and L beams and hexagons, squares, 4 flats and any special shape can be measured. Max. product temperature: This Profilemaster® delivers highly accurate 1200°C and stable readings by applying a proprietary Repeatability The Profilemaster SPS 300-S4 laser unit can principle of analysis – instability being a problem > 0.004mm to 0.02mm depending on case measure complex product profiles in-line associated with such laser gauges in the past. with the mill

18 – May/June 2012 – Steel Times International www.steeltimesint.com senso_Layout 1 5/16/12 12:33 PM Page 1

Analysis & testing

Concentration measurement made easy

IN numerous industrial manufacturing process- es, the inline measurement of concentrations in solutions is required to achieve product quality and manufacture efficiently. Sonic velocity is recommended as a method to achieve this as it provides highly precise and absolute measuring values within seconds. Furthermore, the measuring devices can be installed without a bypass in the supply line and Sensor and controller of the LiquiSonic analyser can be used in almost all chemical substances. The steel industry needs to monitor concen- trations in a number of applications such as applications. Whether installed directly in the ity safety, increasing yield as well as making cleaning and coating lines to ensure quality pipeline or in a vessel, the measuring system energy savings and minimising the use of raw products at the end of the process chain. reliably measures the concentrations of process materials. Therefore, pickling and chrome baths, acid liquids. The system is highly suited to industrial Uses include the neutralization of the pH of regeneration plant, cold rolling mill fluids as applications due to its robust and maintenance- solutions; and gas scrubbers where the range of well as electro-galvanizing lines are equipped free construction and its ease in handling. Thus, maximum absorption can be controlled. with the LiquiSonic® measuring technology. there are many applications, for example, the LiquiSonic sensors have a measuring accura- Concentrations are also measurement to loss of corrosion resistant coatings, installation cy of typically ±0.05wt%, can operate at tem- monitor acid and rolling oil emulsions as well as lengths can be up to 3m and diverse process fit- peratures of up to 200°C and are coated with for analysing the concentration of electrolytes tings such as DIN, Varivent, Clamp or ANSI materials such as Halar, PFA or Hastelloy during strip plating or chrome plating of rolls. can be used for attachment. The sensors are depending on the environment the instrument The sensors are highly suitable for the extreme also available with ATEX and IECEx approval is subjected to.
process conditions experienced in these appli- for use in hazardous areas. Beside the sensors, cations. the controller is also included in the system. Contact: The LiquiSonic measuring system produced This controller manages and presents the meas- SensoTech GmbH by SensoTech is based on determining Sonic ured data transferred over common interfaces Steinfeldstr 1, D-39179 Magdeburg-Barleben, Germany velocity and has proved to be reliable for over to control systems. Tel+ 49 39203 514100 Fax+ 49 39203 514109 20 years in various industrial and laboratory The focus is particularly on process and qual- e-mail [email protected] web www.sensotech.com

Latin American Steel A retrospective in 101 essays

'Latin American Steel: A retrospective in 101 essays' is a collection of reprints Germano Mendes de Paula of pages from Steel Times International of articles authored by Dr Germano Mendes De Paula, Professor of Economics at the Federal LATIN AMERICAN STEEL University of Uberlandia (UFU), Brazil. In all, 101 articles have been collected covering the period January A retrospective in 101 essays 2000 to December 2011 providing an invaluable collection to trace the development of Latin American steel in the past decade. Over 400 steel companies are mentioned in the collection of papers, some many times, such as Gerdau, Usiminas, ArcelorMittal, Ternium, Techint, Sidor, CSN, Acesita, Tenaris, CAP and Deacero, while some have only one entry such as Comesa (now a Gerdau group company), Ferromallas, Inlasa and many others. Indeed, many of these isolated names are absent from the steel directories and are revealed only by the author’s in depth knowledge of the region. An index to the pages referring to each of these companies is found at the end of the book. This collection is recommended reading for all scholars of Latin America’s industrial development, historians, economists and everyone interested in the steel industry whether in a regional or global context. REPRINTS FROM LATIN AMERICA UPDATES & CONFERENCES

Latin American Steel: A retrospective in 101 essays ISSN 2049-7660 160 pages A4 Price £25 + post & package Available from Quartz Business Media, 20 Clarendon Road, Redhill, Surrey, RH1 1QX, UK Tel +44 (0)1737 855136 e-mail [email protected] web www.steeltimesint.com

20 – May/June 2012 – Steel Times International www.steeltimesint.com tx_Layout 1 5/17/12 4:10 PM Page 1

Analysis & testing

New laser triangulation thickness gauge MEASURING strip thickness by laser trian- mill interface is compatible with a wide gulation has the major advantages of not range of mill computers and communica- being affected by the composition of the tion protocols, and the device features logi- strip and also eliminates the precautions and cal operator screens that allow process engi- licensing costs of using isotope or X-Ray neers and OEM project planners to view all based systems. Measuring to an accuracy of relevant data on one screen. better than ±10μm, it is less accurate than Thermo Fisher successfully supports a properly calibrated radiation systems, but is wide range of flat sheet processing applica- sufficiently sensitive for use on downstream tions with its comprehensive thickness and processing lines for quality assurance and coating weight gauge solutions. These for such tasks as setting up head to tail weld- online, non-contact solutions deliver ing parameters for continuous strip process- robust, precise and repeatable measure- ing lines. ments for increased uptime, higher quality The Laser TX optical thickness gauge is and minimal raw material waste.
Thermo Fisher Scientific’s latest addition to its established line of online, non-contact Contact thickness measurement and coating weight e-mail [email protected] gauges. The new laser-based gauge reduces web www.thermoscientific.com costs by eliminating radiation compliance requirements while ensuring alloy insensitiv- The Laser TX optical thickness gauge ity for flat-sheet process line applications in mounted on a C frame is suitable for the steel and aluminium industries. The downstream process lines company presented the Laser TX at AISTech 2012 in Atlanta May 7-10, 2012, as well as at Metals + Metallurgy China 2012 in Beijing May 9-12, 2012. Christopher Burnett, technical product manager for Thermo Scientific flat sheet gauging metals applications said “The Laser TX optical thickness gauge combines premi- um Class II laser technology with estab- lished Thermo Fisher expertise and product reliability. Through our long-time relation- ships with steel and aluminium mill process line customers, we identified very specific Key Measurement Parameters requirements to reduce process line costs Thickness Range 1-15mm while enabling them to measure metal thick- Thickness Noise ±3μm ness regardless of chemical composition. Thickness Accuracy <±10μm The new Laser TX meets these needs while Thickness Reproducibility ±5μm delivering accurate online, non-contact Measuring gap 100mm* thickness measurements for a wide variety Laser spot diam 1mm of sheet processing applications.” Mill interface Ethernet* The new Laser TX uses laser triangulation measurement to provide alloy insensitivity, *Standard – other options on application and the sensors automatically adjust to Thickness data 2-sigma values proven off-line background lighting conditions. The flexible Combined hardness tester THE Wilson Hardness Tukon™ 3100 is a age. Maximum specimen heights are newly developed single indenter Vickers- 125mm, 170mm or 210mm, depending on Knoop hardness tester specifically designed the selected option. Test loads range from to maximize efficiency, accuracy and usabil- 50g to 10kg, supporting a wide range of ity. Its advanced microscope quality optics, applications.
collision control, high speed stage, and its versatile, user-friendly software package Contact provide a major step forward in the field of Hanneke Maas-Litjens, Marketing Communications, ITW Test fully automated routine and R&D hardness & Measurement GmbH, Boschstr. 10, D-73734 Esslingen, testing in compliance with all related ASTM Germany and ISO standards. e-mail [email protected] Core features include a motorised test head, automated x-y-stage and advanced image analysis system. The Tukon 3100 is very robust and suitable for use in both lab- oratory and clean production environment for industrial quality control as well as in the development of products and materials. Its proprietary collision protection system for the indenter and the objective lenses helps to avoid any accidental operator dam-

22 – May/June 2012 – Steel Times International auto myra_Layout 1 5/17/12 8:48 AM Page 1

Transport market

Thomson Reuters/ University of Michigan con- sumer sentiment index rose again in March for the seventh consecutive month reaching 76.2 points, its highest level since February 2011. Demise of light trucks Steel and other auto materials, however, might not be seeing as much of a benefit as these numbers would seem to indicate, says Plummer, given recent changes in product mix. The light truck share of total North American automotive production was down to 56% year to date through February compared with 58.4% for the full year 2011. “It isn’t a huge change, but it implies that it is beginning to decline.” These percentages, however, are somewhat deceptive, given that, according to Cornelius, The demands of the automotive crossover utility vehicles are selling like ‘gang- busters’ and while they are on a car body rather than a truck frame, they are still classified as market in USA trucks. Fuel price impact ArcelorMittal’s S-in motion programme offers a 19% reduction in vehicle weight “We have found that changes in the percent of Source: ArcelorMittal trucks versus passenger cars tends to be a direct function of gasoline prices,” Krupitzer says. “It is déjà vu all over again with gasoline prices up where they had been 10 years ago,” Laurin The US automotive market has recovered from the recession more rapidly than first quips. Currently, according to the Lundberg forecast offering steelmakers a growing market provided they can supply steel grades survey, US gasoline prices are averaging just which can meet the lightweighting requirements demanded by increasingly frugal under $4 a US gallon (3.78 litres or 0.83 Imp gal) with prices as high as $4.50 in certain fuel consumption targets. In this article, Myra Pinkham canvases the opinions of a regions of the country, such as Chicago. And number of US players in the automotive, steel and aluminium industries. given political unrest in the Middle East, By Myra Pinkham* including threats by Iran that they will block oil deliveries from the Strait of Homuz, there is fear that prices could rise to $5-$6 per gallon WHILE still not back to pre-recession levels, ‘Cash for Clunkers’ seemed to jumpstart the over the summer. North American automotive production has market – this year started on a particularly pos- “I’m not sure that we have reached the seen a very impressive increase, bringing the itive note. threshold where gasoline prices will make much steel market – as well as that of some competi- While it will still be a while before the auto of an impact. I don’t see that being a significant tive materials – up as well. Given the accelerat- industry sees US sales of 18 million light vehi- factor at $4 gasoline, but it could be when it ed auto sales in the past few months, there is cles and North American production reaching gets closer to $5 a gallon,” Laurin maintains. optimism that the future will continue to be 16 million to 17 million units a year (the peak in High gasoline prices will continue to be a fact bright. 2005), “The industry is much further ahead of life, maintains Bernard Swiecki, assistant While US steel producers and distributors than we thought it would be at this time,” says director of the Automotive Communities are seeing competition from lighter weight Mark Cornelius, president of business research Partnership at the Center for Automotive materials, especially aluminium, given added company, Morgan & Co., West Olive, Mich. Research (CARS), Ann Arbor, Mich. “Imagine impetus with rising gasoline prices and new, The most recent production peak had been 15 if Europe was humming right now and buying a increasingly more stringent, federal fuel effi- million vehicles in 2007, according to lot of gasoline in competition with us. Prices ciency standards, they are confident that, Christopher Plummer, managing director of would be higher still,” he says. through a combination of increased use of high Metal Strategies Inc, West Chester, Pa, who pre- strength and advanced high strength steels and dicts that level could be matched or exceeded CAFE Regulations new production technologies, steel will contin- next year and that by 2015 North American auto Also pushing the shift to more energy efficient ue to hold onto much of its automotive market output could exceed 16 million light vehicles. vehicles is increasingly stringent federal corpo- share. North American auto output actually rate average fuel efficiency (CAFE), require- “Steel products have kept pace with OEM reached a 15 million annualised rate during ments for both passenger cars and light trucks. demands for decades, and should continue to February, which was an astounding 22% Plummer observes that CAFE standards for do so”, says Ronald Krupitzer, vice president of improvement year on year, “But a big chunk of passenger cars jumped to 29.5 miles per US gal- automotive applications for the Washington- that is pent up demand,” Magliano (IHS lon (12.54km/l) this year from 27 mpg based American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI). Automotive) says, noting that during the eco- (11.47km/l) in 2008 and low-end projections “Automotive is the market that has led the nomic downturn many people held off buying call for further improvements, possibly twice US steel market out of the recession and it con- cars and now the average vehicle on the road is that of the 2008 level by 2025 (Table 1). tinues to enjoy a faster rate of recovery than 10-11 years old. “Because of that it is cheaper many other steel markets,” he declares, adding to buy a new car than keep the one they have.” Electric & hybrids that it appears as if this will continue in the In addition, Cornelius observes that the New Because of this automakers are looking at ways foreseeable future if current domestic automo- Domestic auto manufacturers have been crank- to make their vehicles lighter, and that push tive sales and production trends continue. ing up their production output to make up for could be accelerated should ‘green’ cars such as “US auto demand has been pretty spectacu- the volumes that they had lost a year ago due to hybrids and electric vehicles, which at this point lar during the last few months,” says George the after effects of the Japanese earthquakes tend to be mainly fleet vehicles or novelties for Magliano, senior economist for IHS and tsunami. Also, according to Keith Laurin, those consumers who can afford the price pre- Automotive, New York. He notes that while the director of automotive sales for ThyssenKrupp mium, become more popular. This is because automotive market had been seeing steady USA LLC, Calvert, Ala, a combination of the batteries and additional motors in these increases at a greater rate than the general increased consumer confidence and greater vehicles add to their weight. Robert Dicianni, economy for the past few years – ever since availability of credit has also helped. The marketing manager for ArcelorMittal USA says

*STI correspondent in USA

www.steeltimesint.com Steel Times International – May/June 2012 – 23 auto myra_Layout 1 5/17/12 8:48 AM Page 2

Transport market

Year US mpg Imp mpg km/lit

2008 27.0 32.4 11.47 2012 29.5 35.4 12.54 2017 38.0 45.6 16.15 2020 40.0 48.0 17.00 2025 46.0 55.2 19.55 Alt 2025 54.5 65.4 23.17

Table 1 Called for in motion’ latest concepts for lightweight auto- CAFE regulations on motive steel applications to USA last year. This fuel consumption of includes the use of ‘next generation’ advanced US automobiles high strength steel automotive solutions. The S- in motion portfolio comprises a range of over ThyssenKrupp Steel USA is aiming to supply 60 innovative Press-Hardened Steel (PHS) and the automotive market, particularly the new Advanced High Strength Steel (AHSS) solu- domestic facilities in the US south tions that can be implemented in vehicles today, (Hot strip mill at ThyssenKrupp Steel USA – delivering benefits to both car makers and con- Source TKS) sumers in terms of weight, safety and efficiency. Zuidema says these solutions result in a 19% automotive forecasters are not calling for these weight reduction compared with the 2008 C- vehicles to account for any significant market segment baseline vehicle used as a comparison. share of the light vehicle market – possibly as Also, according to the company’s life cycle low at 2-3% through 2020, unless gasoline analysis, it delivers a 13.5% fall in carbon diox- prices do increase significantly. “$4 per gallon ide equivalent emissions during the vehicle use gasoline isn’t enough to make this market grow phase with another 15% reduction able to be faster”. he believes. obtained during production. This is not to say that there has not been, and “Nucor is always developing new products to will not be, any improvement at all but it is from meet the growing needs of our automotive cus- a very low base. Cornelius notes that US elec- tomers,” Ferriola says, adding that a few of tric vehicle sales were up 4.2% in 2011 and Continuous hot dip galvanised strip at these recently developed products include could rise 26% this year given all the new offer- ThyssenKrupp Steel USA ‘NuPhase’, a multiphase advanced high ings in the past year. That, however, would only Source: ThyssenKrupp Steel strength steel and ‘Grade 100’, an ultra-high bring sales up to about 29 200 vehicles in 2012. strength steel grade. Laurin concedes that that shrinking vehicle joint development and promotion efforts, The need for steel suppliers to continue to sizes would equate to a lower tonnage of steel including the Ultralight Steel Auto Body pro- upgrade their capabilities – and for processors and other auto materials, “But as the vehicle grammes, the Auto Steel Partnership and the and parts makers to do the same thing – implies size goes down, the performance requirements Automotive Partnership Canada, as well as investing in new equipment, especially given go up, which is a plus for steel,” he maintains. individual steel company developments such as that the new market will reduce the number of by ArcelorMittal and ThyssenKrupp, sees a very available suppliers. Dicianni says that not all Material competition different scenario. “I believe that steel will con- steelmakers can currently make the more Krupitzer (AISI) concedes that the push for tinue to do quite well,” Plummer says. advanced high strength steels and make them more fuel-efficient auto designs will open up “Steel remains and will continue to be the well. “Companies that are lagging behind today opportunities for aluminium, magnesium, car- low cost, low emission lightweight material will try to catch up over the next several years bon fibre and plastics suppliers. However, he is solution for automobiles. This will not change,” and companies who are leading today will work optimistic that the steel market share could John Ferriola, president and chief executive to maintain their lead and to try to move into largely be maintained through the use of a com- officer of Nucor Corp, Charlotte, NC, believes. even more exotic steel grades.” bination of new steel alloys such as high “In addition steel, particularly steel produced Krupitzer says that, as a result, just about every strength and advanced high strength steels and through the minimill process, is much more North American steelmaker serving the automo- new manufacturing technologies that allow environmentally friendly than alternative mate- tive market is either adding new lines or upgrad- them to be used judiciously where they are rials in their production phase and as automo- ing existing ones, bringing on new high strength needed. “Automakers are looking at how much biles increase their fuel economy, the material steel, annealing and galvanizing capacity. weight savings they could get using steel, as it is production phase of a vehicle becomes more Ferriola says that Nucor has invested over a cost effective solution,” he says, but they are important in the total lifecycle assessment of a $1bn in the last three years with an emphasis on looking at other materials as well, trying to get car.” He estimates that by 2025 the production the growing automotive industry. “We have vac- as much mass reduction as possible. phase of a vehicle will have more impact on the uum degassers at two mills, we are investing While the effect might not be felt immediate- environment than the use phase of the vehicle. almost $300M in special bar quality growth and ly, Dick Schultz, managing director of Ducker “We have done studies that show that auto are investing over $100M to expand our sheet Worldwide, Troy, Mich, says that an “unprece- companies can use advanced high strength width to 72 inches (1829mm) and also to dented” increase in aluminium content in the steels without a significant cost penalty, and, in increase our product breadth at our Berkeley, average North American passenger car by the many cases, there is a cost benefit, Dicianni SC, sheet mill.” 2025 step-up in CAFE requirements will cut says, as while high strength steels are more In January, Severstal North America hot com- into steel – particularly mild steel – use. He says expensive than mild steels on a per ton basis, missioned a 500k ston/y hot dipped galvanized that while the percentage of high strength and less tonnage is required. and hot dipped galvanneal line in Dearborn, advanced steels will grow, the overall steel con- Laurin agrees, noting that there has also been Mich, to produce sheet of sufficient quality for tent will decline from 58% to 46% between now more activity on certain new automotive manu- use on external panels. Among other products, and 2025. Meanwhile the aluminium content facturing technologies such as tailor rolled this will process high strength and advanced will go from 9% to 16% of the total, growing blanks and hot stamping which bodes well for high strength steels for the automotive market. from 343lbs (156kg) per vehicle to 550lbs steel. “Steel will prove itself,” he says, through a Some of the capacity from that line will also be (250kg), mostly for sheet and extrusions for the combinations of the steels used and changes in used by other high end markets, including the body structure and closures. Traditionally alu- how automakers design vehicles with those appliance and furniture industries. minium has been almost exclusively used in steels. Also much of the galvanizing capacity of the castings, “But the time has come for that to He notes that ThyssenKrupp has contributed new ThyssenKrupp Steel USA facility, which is change,” Schultz says, adding that all told the to this through some of its own development continuing to ramp up, is aimed at supplying average passenger car will be about 400lbs work, as have some of its competitors. This the automotive market, particularly the new (182kg) lighter in 2025 than it is now. includes ArcelorMittal, which, according to domestic facilities in the US south. US Steel Meanwhile, the North American steel indus- Blake Zuidema, director of its automotive reportedly is restarting another galvanized line try, which has been involved in both several product applications division, introduced its ‘S- in Hamilton, Ontario, in May.

24 – May/June 2012 – Steel Times International www.steeltimesint.com auto myra_Layout 1 5/17/12 8:48 AM Page 3

Transport market LASER.com - www.LAP

CO2eq emissions arising from ArcelorMittal’s S-in motion programme are esti- mated to be 13.5% lower in the vehicle in use phase and 15% lower in the production phase Source: ArcelorMittal

Similar moves are being made dented levels in 2005 of 17 mil- by aluminium producers. For lion vehicles, but 14 million is a example, Alcoa Inc has very sustainable and positive level announced a $300M investment of sales and production for the in its Davenport, Iowa, facility automotive industry,” Ferriola and Novelis Inc has invested says. $200M in its Oswego, NY, facility. Laurin agrees, stating, “Most Overall, 2012 is expected to be automakers are making profits at a good year for both the automo- these lower numbers and are tive industry and its steel suppli- bringing everyone else up with ers. “We aren’t at the unprece- them for the ride.”
MEASURING INSTEAD OF What Aluminium has to offer Dick Schultz, managing director of of aluminium use in the automo- SCRAP MELTING Ducker Worldwide, Troy, Mich tive sector by 2025,” he says. says: “Traditionally 80% of alu- “We don’t necessarily look at minium in automobiles has been advanced high strength steels as in castings, but the time has come competition,” Kaiser’s Richman for more aluminium sheet and states. “The vehicle of the future is extrusions,”. While aluminium is not going to be a monolithic vehi- already the leading material in cle. The body in white will have power train and wheel applica- aluminium, steel, magnesium and tions, the latest Ducker survey, other materials in it as well.” released last September, indicates “The steel industry has done a that it is quickly gaining market superb job with what they can share in hoods, trunks, doors and do,” he admits. “But the auto bumpers. Body, bumper and clo- industry needs to go beyond just sure content grew by 58% from using advanced high strength [THICKNESS][DIAMETER] 2009 to 2012, with 30% of all steels to meet their needs to hoods in 2012 vehicles being alu- achieve better fuel efficiency.” minium, saving a total of about Also these goals cannot be totally 100 million lbs (45.3k metric met by substitution to aluminium tonnes) of vehicle weight across and other lightweight materials, the entire fleet. he agrees. “While weight reduc- As automakers consume more alu- tion could deliver about a two to minium, it could result in a tight- three mile per gallon improve- ening of supply of automotive ment, the new fuel efficiency for grade aluminium sheet and extru- fleets needs to be at least 22mpg sions, Ducker’s Schultz says. (US) better than it is today. The Use of aluminium should double rest needs to come from new [STRAIGHTNESS] [PROFILES] by 2025, says, Doug Richman, vice technologies, with the largest president of engineering and tech- being increased engine efficien- nology for Kaiser Aluminum Corp, cies,” he says. Foothill Ranch, Calif, noting that “It will take the best materials, the the automotive body in white – best designs, the best everything the body of the car not including for automakers to meet their fuel closure panels – which accounts efficiency goals,” he concludes. for 20 to 25% of the vehicle “Also the OEMs need to imple- weight, is the next frontier. “We ment all of these new technolo- expect to add over 2bn lb (907kt) gies in a timely fashion.”

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Transport market

Ruukki provides HSS for conveying ore

The use of Ruukki Optim 550 high strength steel in vehicles reduces weight through thinner sections

The first new mine in Europe for many years is being built at Pajala, in northern Sweden. Ruukki is delivering steel for this and other mines in the region both to transport ore by rail and to build underground mining equipment. MINING activities in northern Sweden began in mining the ore, but transporting it. show what it can do in terms of producing very Kiruna more than a century ago when it was The 500km railway (the Malmbana) which high-strength, wear-resistant steels. In addition, already known that the ore deposits extended transports the 76000t of ore mined each day Ruukki is able to weld complex, prefabricated under the area of settlement. In those days, they from Kiruna to either the harbour of Narvik in components that can be quickly assembled to could never have envisaged how much more effi- Norway or that of Luleå in northern Sweden, is produce wagons or mining equipment. cient mining would become or that demand for indispensible. As many as 10-12 ore trains a day Bogoljub Hrnjez, business manager at iron ore would grow towards that now demand- make the journey between Svappavaara and Ruukki, considers that the mining industry has ed in the 21st century. Narvik on the shore of the Narvik or Ofoten entered a new era. “Mineral supplies are limited The town of Kiruna is now being relocated Fjord. From Narvik, the ore continues its jour- and mining activities call for increasingly com- away from the ore deposit. Parts of the town cen- ney out into the world. plex solutions to enable the exploitation of ore tre are gradually being moved to the slopes of the Similarly, there are at least five ore trains a day in places that are more difficult to access.” He Luossavaara mountain, some of the former between Luleå and Svappavaara. A total of 1012 continues, “At the same time, the cost basis in buildings are being demolished and others are wagons of iron ore a day are transported the mining industry has changed permanently. It being moved in one piece. This transformation throughout the year. When operations start up at is more important than ever to eliminate expen- over the next 30 years will affect about 10% of the Pajala mine in 2013, the iron ore traffic to sive disruptions to production and to ensure the settlement. Narvik will grow further. that machinery and equipment are reliable. There is mining fever also elsewhere in the The locomotives that pull the trains are elec- Ruukki Raex steels meet current needs to north of Sweden. Old mines are being re-opened tric, picking up power from overhead cables. But enable uninterrupted mining activities at mini- apace and new ones are being planned. The new traffic on the track is largely self sufficient in mum cost,” iron ore mine at Pajala, about 120km to the east terms of energy thanks to a feedback system In autumn 2011, Hrnjez arranged training in of Kiruna, near the Finnish border, is being which allows the train to feed power to the over- the mining sector for Ruukki’s global partners developed by Northland Resources. The same head cables while descending a gradient. The and some of the courses were held at a depth of company is also examining the possibility of route first goes uphill over the mountains and one kilometre underground. opening a mine in Hannukainen, in Kolari on the then descends at which time the train is able to Mining conditions must be taken into Finnish side of the border. use its motors to generate power which is fed account in product design, such as in the cabins LKAB (Luossavaara-Kiiruna Aktiebolag) back into the overhead cable to be used for the for mining machines. began mining at the top of the Kiirunavaara return uphill journey. The need for rail and infra- “Mine tunnels can be cramped and mining mountain 100 years ago and to date has reached structure solutions will increase when ore from machines and cabins must fit into them. a depth of 1045m below the level of the original the Kaunisvaara mine is transported to Narvik. Whether it’s a question of open cast mining or peak. Of the world’s largest iron ore producers, Heavy transport naturally wears out the wag- underground tunnels, cabins must be able to only LKAB mines underground. Work in the ons and tracks. Rolling stock must be built of withstand toppling over or rocks falling on tunnels is automated and remotely controlled. high-strength steel than can withstand blows, them. This is why Raex is a good choice for the The deeper down the mine extends, the better wear and very cold winter conditions. At the frame structures of cabins,” explains Juho the quality of the ore has proved to be. A new same time, the idea is to increase transport Koskinen, Vice President, Cabin Business, at mine level is currently being developed at a capacity while decreasing fuel consumption. Ruukki.
depth of 1300m. The challenge is not so much Mines offer an excellent chance for Ruukki to www.ruukki.com/ Bloodhound – TWI bonding in 1000mph ‘car’ designed to inspire the next generation of scien- by Hampson Aerospace, and TWI will provide tist, engineers and mathematicians and set a support and training to the Hampson engineer- Artist’s impression of the new World Land Speed Record. ing team. Bloodhound super-sonic car TWI is undertaking a 12-week study, which The build of the car is planned for December has identified suitable adhesives and surface 2012 and trials for the record attempt will begin preparation techniques for bonding together in 2013 on Hakskeen Pan in South Africa. aluminium and steel parts of the chassis struc- Bloodhound SSC will be powered by a ture. The project team is currently testing an Eurofighter Typhoon jet engine and a Falcon adhesive/rivet combination. The bonding sys- hybrid rocket with a pump driven by a tem (adhesive/surface preparation/curing Cosworth Formula 1 engine. The car will be approach) has been developed out of the needs 12.8 metres long, weigh 6.5 tonnes empty (7.5 of the car design specifications where a struc- tonnes fully fuelled) and will accelerate from tural adhesive bond has to be achieved and rest to 1000mph and back to rest again in 100 maintained over a range of temperatures up to seconds, covering 10 miles across the South 150°C and the high vibration loads which will African desert. The current World Land Speed be seen within the chassis. Additionally, the Record is 763mph. adhesive bond has to retain its strength charac- Bloodhound SSC is also a significant educa- CAMBRIDGE based technology engineering teristics for the duration of the challenge and tional initiative to showcase engineering and company TWI is working with the Bloodhound this can only be achieved with any level of con- science, which is currently involving 4900 SuperSonic Car design team to provide expert- fidence if the correct surface preparation schools, 44 universities and 260 further educa- ise in adhesive bonding. TWI’s role is to identi- processes are applied from the outset. tional colleges.
fy and test the perfect materials joining tech- Final construction of the chassis and the www.bloodhoundssc.com and nique for the lower chassis structure of the car body of Bloodhound SSC will be undertaken http://www.bloodhoundssc.com/education.cfm

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Rolling

Design for integration of roll grinding shop

The traditional approach of a mill estab- grated in the numerical control system, which lishing a roll grinding shop was to mix manages all the transducers. This arrangement achieves the same level of performance as that machines from various suppliers but this of a machine tool in terms of precision, accura- leads to inefficiencies as often equipment cy and diagnostics. The roll is lifted or lowered lacks compatibility. Pomini thus intro- by means of a special tong fitted to the loader’s duced the concept of an integrated roll hoist. The tong can be provided with a broad range of accessories and features to handle any shop, first planning the layout using a kind of roll with or without chocks. There is the dynamic approach to take into account possibility to adjust the distance between the interactions between machines and then grippers and to have two chock tilters which are designing or modifying its own machines able to rotate the roll chocks by 90° while on the loader. This operation is sometimes to exactly match the capacities and required before the grinding phase in cases restrictions required by the customer. where the shape of the chocks, if left on, inter- By D Quaglia*, F Auteri**, G Boselli* fere with the grinding process. & P Gaboardi* Another important machine in a roll shop is the chocking-dechocking machine. Pomini has Fig 1 Automatic loader at ThyssenKrupp’s long term experience in designing such roll shop in Calvert, Alabama machines, where the goal is to safely perform THE 90s were a crucial time for the develop- the extraction and the insertion of chocks from designed a ‘combi’ machine able to extract and ment of roll shops both in layout and supply and onto the rolls. The machines can be dedi- insert chocks on both the work rolls and the philosophy. At that time roll shops were often cated to handle work rolls, back-up rolls or back-up rolls. Its layout is similar to a machine designed by the steelmakers who purchased the both in a single machine for cold and hot rolling dedicated to work rolls, except that the last sta- individual items of equipment from various mills and heavy plate mills. The chocking- tion is designed to support a larger back-up roll suppliers and then tried to integrate each in the dechocking machine for work rolls usually con- (Fig 2). best possible way. Often this integration was sists of several stations side by side which sup- These machines are designed to be fully inte- not perfect or, at least, proved to be difficult, port the rolls when they are lowered from the grated in the roll shop; therefore all functions due to the fact that strict co-ordination between main crane. The number of stations is decided are controlled through a Siemens PLC of the several suppliers was necessary and this was not by the production requirements of the cus- same family as the ones for the grinders and always achieved. tomer, after an accurate analysis by Pomini’s loaders. These can all communicate with the Pomini saw the need of steel manufacturers engineers. Roll Shop Management System (RSMS) and for a better solution from this point of view, and Two extractor carriages traverse along the the WinLoader software. These two elements in those years decided to move from the design stands, one on the drive side and the other on work together to schedule and keep track of and manufacture of roll grinding machines the operator side. Each carriage is provided roll movements in the roll shop, keeping updat- alone, to the design and manufacture of all the with a top car, which can move perpendicularly ed information regarding the roll inventory, and main components needed in a roll shop, along to its direction of travel in order to approach providing useful statistics to help roll shop man- with their integration. This step required con- the chock, grab it, and extract or inserts it. Due agers make better decisions[1][2]. The advan- siderable effort in the early years, but led to to the less frequent need for maintenance of tages of the risk analysis and design review, per- great satisfaction, and enabled Pomini to reach the back-up roll chocks compared with work formed during the design phase, significantly the status of a leader in this field. Pomini is roll chocks, the chock extractor machine for improve the safety and ergonomics of the oper- capable of designing, manufacturing and com- back-up rolls usually requires only a single cen- ation. For example, the chocking-dechocking missioning all the machines required in roll tral station. This central unit comprises four machine is controlled by hand-held radio con- shops and fully integrating them in a ‘turn key’ support rollers onto which the back-up roll is trollers to give the operators more freedom of philosophy. loaded by the main crane. Two extractor car- movement and safety. riages on rails, one on the drive side and one on The chock tilter is a useful auxiliary machine Complete roll shop the operator side, are capable of clamping onto in the maintenance of chocks. This device The core of the Pomini complete roll shop is the the chocks to perform the chocking or rotates the chock by 90º to a horizontal position roll grinder. To maximise the productivity of dechocking operation. Pomini has also which is necessary when extracting its bearings. grinders, Pomini also designs and manufactures an Automatic Loader System. Its purpose is to create a ‘cell’ inside the roll shop which can grind the rolls and also decide the grinding pri- orities without the supervision of an operator. The ultimate task of this cell is efficient produc- tion of rolls with a constant level of quality, allowing operators more time for other activi- ties in the roll shop. The Automatic Loading System is basically a CNC controlled crane (Automatic Loader) with a gantry or semi- gantry layout and two or three controlled axes according to customer’s needs. This runs on rails in a dedicated ‘automatic area’, most of which is dedicated to rolls storage (Fig 1). The operators ‘fill’ the storage area with rolls to be ground and from this point onward, all the roll handling and grinding operations are per- formed automatically. The Automatic Loader embodies Siemens CNC technology for all the movements (positioning of bridge, trolley and lifting tong), with a PLC board that is fully inte- Fig 2 Chocking-dechocking machine for work rolls and back-up rolls

*Pomini Tenova [email protected], **Pomini, Inc (USA) [email protected]

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Rolling

Fig 3 Pomini’s new shear blade grinder Fig 4 Dynamic roll shop simulation

Initial Fill in the idea input data Run the simulation

Modify some input parameters eg: 400 days in Analyse output 3 minutes statistics

Compare Decide the best different solutions configuration

Mill side Mill side

Roll shop side Roll shop side BUR & rougher Finishing WR BUR & rougher Finishing WR WR transfer car transfer cars WR transfer car transfer cars 1 2 2 1 & & North North & & Main crane Main crane Main crane Main crane

BUR and rougher WR mainte- BUR & rougher WR Automatic area nance area (chocking dechocking maintenance area for finishing WR BUR & rougher WR Automatic area machine) maintenance area for finishing WR (grinders) (grinders)

Fig 5 Initial proposal for ‘common sense’ layout of a congested roll Fig 6 Layout of same roll shop after dynamic consideration of shop resulting in blocked cranes logistics

Thanks to this machine, the operator can avoid equipment as well as their location in the shop ties in Europe, the Politecnico di Milano. The the dangerous operation of tilting the chock so as to optimise logistics. simulator software is able to point the layout improperly using the main crane, so improving The process to obtain an efficient roll shop designers to the best solution among the sever- safety in the roll shop. The safety criteria that involves several aspects. Experience and know- al preliminary layouts being considered, using a inspired the design of this machine includes a how are required from the very first phases of a ‘dynamic’ approach. The roll shop machines are system of safety fences and interlocked gates, project: the technical preliminary discussion. divided into three groups: grinders, trans- designed with a poka-yoke philosophy During this stage, decisions of major impor- porters and auxiliaries. The first group consists (Japanese for fool-proof) which protects the tance are taken regarding the layout of the of all the grinding machines, the second operator from the danger of falling into the plant, often with little information and few cer- includes all the roll handling devices such as foundation pit during the operation. tain points. The success of a plant depends on automatic loader systems, transfer cars and A grinder dedicated to the shear blades of the the decisions made at this preliminary stage. As main cranes with lifting tackles, the third is crop cutters in rolling mills is a new and rele- a consequence, an experienced guide, who composed of the machines required for mainte- vant product in the Pomini portfolio. Such helps the customer to choose between several nance: chocking dechocking machines, chock shear blade grinders are capable of resurfacing scenarios for the best production results, is tilters and so on. The software associates each straight blades weighing up to 600kg and up to required from the beginning. Pomini, with its item belonging to the three groups with a data- 5.5m long. experience and know-how, is able to assess the base of management rules, defining their influ- The machine consists of an electro-welded optimum number of grinders and auxiliaries to ence on the possible roll shop performances. steel bed with a magnetic table on which the achieve the production targets in the best way, Pomini’s programmers introduced some vari- blade is positioned and kept fixed by magnetic even if the data are not all available. These two ability in the code, to increase the level of real- clamping forces (Fig 3). A carriage with a grind- features are not easily found in an individual ism of the simulation: for example, the rate of ing wheel traverses along the bed using an axis supplier, and this is the first advantage of arrival of rolls in the roll shop, which varies and motor and linear roller guides to provide the choosing a single partner for the whole project. is often characterised by batch changes due to necessary accuracy and stiffness. The blade is Too often, even today, the philosophy adopt- campaigns; the quality of rolls, which some- resurfaced to the strict tolerances required by ed to design the layout of the roll shop is a ‘sta- times in real life have defects so large that they the mill designers. All the movements are CNC tic’ approach. This means that the various need a further grinding operation; the process controlled, to allow precision and repeatability. pieces of information are analysed separately time on both grinders and auxiliaries, taking Along with these products, Pomini is able to without considering the mutual influences of into account the utilisation time of machines supply, with its own design, other auxiliaries machines on each other during operations. This such as the main cranes and lifting devices. The such as a washing machine for chocks and bear- approach is certainly useful, but has limitations. simulator requires a preliminary configuration ings for work rolls, the cleaning and preserving Firstly, it is not possible to rigorously monitor to be first analysed: the number of each type of tanks for the maintenance of Morgoil bearings; the consequences of a particular choice over machines needed in each group is initially a cleaning cabin to wash the roll before grind- time: for example assessing the effect, after assessed using the static approach and then the ing; a cooling station to lower the temperature some months or even years of running of the simulation is run, resulting within a few minutes of the roll when it arrives direct from the mill; roll shop, of decisions such as installing a with the desired number of years of the roll and the roll transfer car to transport the rolls grinder in one location rather than another. shop functioning. With this software tool, sever- from and to the mill. Moreover Pomini supplies Moreover, it is difficult to take into account the al layout configurations can be easily tested, the racks for the roll storage and also supplies variability in mill and roll shop performances, and the best among the candidates can there- the jib cranes. which is always present but requires a high level fore be chosen (Fig 4). of experience and knowledge to be synthesized A good example of the usefulness of this tool Layout of roll shop in a useful way. In recent years, Pomini decided is the design of the layout of the ATI ALC Roll The feature that most characterizes Pomini’s to move from the static approach to a dynamic Shop project in USA, in 2010. This roll shop was approach to roll shop design is that, from the one, thanks to innovative roll shop simulation complicated due to the lack of available space earliest drafting phase, the greatest attention is software[3] (RSS), developed by its engineers for the number of rolls and equipment that had put into the integration of all the pieces of together with one of the best technical universi- to be installed. In these conditions, optimisation

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Rolling

The consequences of this change in the phi- losophy of the machine also influences the design from the mechanical and structural point of view. The requirement of a ‘semi auto- matic area’, crossable by operators and vehicles such as forklifts, required that the bottom rails Fig 7 Multipurpose of the loader had to be installed at the same lifting tong of the level as the floor, in such a way to have a automatic loaders at smooth surface, without gaps or steps. The TKS Alabama standard Pomini layout of semi-gantry loaders uses guide rollers on the bottom head beam to maintain good alignment of the crane along its travel, as well as contending with the forces due to the bridge skewing. However, the presence of such guide rollers would have required a wide housing for the bottom rails in the con- crete, preventing the passage of forklifts. Therefore, the engineers decided to install the guide rollers on the top head beam and to of the layout was not only desirable, but essen- ments evident from the past experience of the install a hinged connection between the girders tial to obtain the required performance. The ini- customer or the precise demands of the and the leg beams of the loader, thus changing tial idea was to place the automatic area and the process. At this stage, the variety and flexibility the static structural scheme of the loader to an related roll grinders as close as possible to the of the solutions that Pomini can suggest is an alternative one. In fact, the installation of the transfer cars for the finishing work rolls (Fig 5). advantage for the customer. This flexibility is guide rollers on the top head beam, while keep- This choice appeared optimal, since the finish- the result of an attitude that is open to new ing a rigid joint on the leg beams and a lateral ing work rolls have to be ground eight times challenges and to continuous improvement, but constraint produced by the bottom wheels more often than the rougher work rolls and the it would not be possible without a deep know- which have two edge flanges around the cir- back-up rolls. In such a situation the grinder for how and full knowledge of the design and the cumference, would have introduced a statically the back-up rolls was proposed to be installed at technologies required for the machines. These indeterminate scheme in the structure of the the south side of the roll shop, while the main- factors constitute a great help in the critical loader. This would be a disadvantage from the tenance area for the back-up rolls was at the decisions even at the initial stage of technical point of view of stress during the loader’s oper- north side. The automatic area for the work rolls discussion or at the very first meeting with the ation, in particular with any imperfect align- was to be placed between these two locations. customer. ment of the rails or with deformation caused by In practice, the limited room in the roll shop An example of flexibility combined with temperature fluctuations. From these consider- prevented keeping the two areas dedicated to expertise is the Automatic Loading System for ations, the most efficient scheme was to place the back-up rolls (the roll grinder area and the ThyssenKrupp Compass project, in Calvert, the guide rollers on the top head beam, togeth- maintenance area) next to each other and the Alabama. In the roll shop of the cold rolling er with a hinge joint between the legs and location of the automatic area very close to the mill, the customer had asked for a loading sys- beams, and add flanges to the bottom wheels. transfer cars. As a result, while, during the nor- tem without a dedicated ‘automatic area’, so as This led to a lighter design for the leg structure mal rate of supply of finishing rolls, the flow was to have complete access for the operators, and in this configuration was not subjected to extremely smooth, but it became very inefficient transfer cars and forklifts in the zone. This bending moments. Although this solution is a when the rougher work rolls and the back-up request required Pomini’s engineers to com- well known scheme in the engineering of rolls had to be ground at the same time as the pletely redesign the goal, mission and philoso- cranes, it testifies to the multi-disciplinary finishing work rolls. In fact, the first main crane, phy of the Automatic Loading System. In the know-how and flexibility of Pomeni’s engineer- which was dedicated to the finishing work rolls standard system, the loader operates in its own ing department which was able to assess sever- because of its lower load capacity, would have dedicated area, which is separated from the rest al configurations for the machine, choosing the been continuously blocked by the second main of the shop by interlocked fences. The pairs of best one right from the start of the project. crane, which was the only one capable of han- work rolls to be ground enter this area along Pomini’s design philosophy helps obtain a set dling the heavier back-up rolls and rougher with the main crane, the automatic loader sep- of machines which are perfectly integrated with work rolls as these had to be transported from arates the pairs of rolls and automatically loads each other and with the rolling mill. A great the area at the south end of the roll shop to the the grinders according to a specified optimised example of integrated design is once again the one in the north. Pomini proposed an alterna- mission. No operator is allowed to be present in ThyssenKrupp Compass Project, in Alabama. tive solution (Fig 6). By shifting the automatic the automatic area when the roll loader is run- The automatic loaders installed in the roll shop area towards the north side, it was possible to ning and any access has to be ‘booked’ by for the cold rolling mill rolls are working in concentrate all the machines dedicated to the means of a special procedure with consequent semi-automatically mode as previously back-up and rougher work rolls at the south stop in loader operations for safety reasons. To described. These had two specific missions; one side, thus eliminating the inconvenience of hav- meet the ThyssenKrupp’s requirements the being to assembly and disassembly the roll pairs ing the two main cranes blocking each other. idea of an ‘automatic area’ was converted into a of the Tandem Cold Mill (TCM) in their cas- The disadvantage of this solution was the new concept, the ‘semi-automatic area’. The settes, transport each single roll with chocks to increased distance of the automatic area from fences with interlocked gates were removed the chocking/dechocking machine, then trans- the work roll transfer cars. However, with the and it was possible for operators to remain in port the roll to the grinder. The total mission is aid of the roll shop simulator, Pomini demon- the surroundings of the loader during opera- completed once each step is also performed in strated that, on a long-term basis, it was worth tion. Pomini’s safety engineers installed radar the reverse direction. The second mission was adopting this alternative layout, since the cranes devices to stop the loader if some obstacle similar, but was dedicated to the Skin Pass Mill were managed in a better way and did not cause (object or person) was too close to the working (SPM) and the intermediate rolls of this mill queues during the contemporary batch changes. zone. The loader was designed with a different (ISPM). The rolls were taken on their racks, This example shows how the RSS is a useful philosophy: its mission was conceptually split transported to the chocking dechocking tool, and how it enables logistic designers to into several steps, and each step needed the machine, and then subsequently to the overcome the limits of thinking according to permission of a dedicated operator (‘supervi- grinders. In order to manage all these types of ‘common sense’ to achieve the best possible sor’) to commence (normally the supervisor just rolls, with and without chocks, a special tong performances even in the most complicated gives permission at the start of each mission). with four grippers was designed for the auto- cases. Once permission is given, the loader automati- matic loader (Fig 7). It has the capability of cally handles the roll without any need for input handling rolls by the shoulders and by the ends, Design of machines by the supervisor. To improve their control and according to the particular configuration, to After defining the machines required, the next view, a pulpit was installed on-board the lower perform safe lifting even from the cassettes step is to have a precise idea of the layout of all head beam of the loader, from where the super- designed by the customer, which were very nar- the machines to be installed. Each roll shop is a visor can monitor every operation in complete row and offered only limited space during lift- particular case, with peculiar needs and require- safety. ing. The two central grippers lift the

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Rolling

Fig 8 Chocking-dechocking machine for ATI ALC project with a central station to adjust the support rolls for different mill roll barrel lengths

SPM/ISPM rolls (with chocks) by their shoul- between the supporting rollers is always epoxy resin) in a single unit, on which both the der, while the external grippers lift the same achieved without any risk of tipping. The neces- front and the back part of the machine are rolls without chocks and the TCM rolls with sary position of the support rollers are set for mounted. This material combines stiffness with and without chocks. To horizontally adjust the each mill roll type so the operator, using a vibration damping, but requires an accurate grippers to the several configurations, the tong remote controller, sets the machine at the cor- analysis of its geometrical features, which was equipped with two beams which slid inside rect position for the roll type prior to arrival depend on the state of polymerisation of the the central structure on special heavy duty bear- (Fig 8). granite itself. The bed can be machined once ings. For the vertical direction, a degree of free- this stage has completely ended. A high level of dom was introduced on both sides. With this Manufacture & assembly of machines precision is required on this component, partic- design, the tong is able to handle rolls on After the preliminary and detailed design of the ularly on the guides of the wheel carriage, since grinders, the chocking/dechocking machine, machines, it is time to switch from design to there is no chance of later adjustment, the bed and the cassettes for the TCM and racks for manufacture. Manufacturing and assembly are being a single block. Thus, compliance to the ISPM/SPM. steps which Pomini follows with great care, in strict tolerances in flatness and linear dimen- The approach of the integrated roll shops is particular for critical components. As a design- sions is paramount to achieve a smooth wheel strongly linked with the safety engineering since er of every single part of the machines, Pomini’s movement and an even load on the wheel. every technical decision is taken together with engineers know the important role of high qual- Pomini’s attitude in manufacturing is the same Pomini’s safety team. An example is the chock- ity manufacturing and assembly of the various for the auxiliary equipment in the roll shop. ing dechocking machine for the back up rolls parts. This knowledge is directly transferred to While the workshop is equipped for the assem- for the ATI ALC project where the customer the personnel in the workshop, with the advan- bly of such machines, including those of large wanted the chocking and dechocking operation tage that great care is taken in producing those dimensions, it is sometimes necessary to contract to be performed on all the back-up rolls, includ- elements where quality is the key to high per- out the machining of such auxiliary equipment to ing those of the existing cold mill. These rolls formance of the machine. enable Pomini to concentrate on building core had a much shorter barrel (1400mm) compared Numerous examples can be found, in partic- items Therefore, Pomini has established a net- with rolls from the new HSM, requiring a nar- ular on Pomini’s grinders, machines character- work of specialised and qualified sub-suppliers. row station to support them. Such a narrow sta- ized by a high level of precision technology. Fig 9 show the assembly of a chocking/ dechock- tion would have been extremely slender for the Starting with the bed of the grinder which con- ing machine and chock tilter for the roll shop of roughing rolls of the new HSM mill, which has stitutes the base of the machine, an accurate job a heavy plate plant at Jindal JSPL in India during a barrel 1.5 times longer. A risk analysis identi- to obtain the required strict dimensional assembly and testing in Italy. fied the possibility of these rolls tipping over parameters is performed. In particular, the The knowledge of the Pomini’s engineers is during removal of the first chock, the weight of hydrostatic guides are machined with extreme passed directly to the workshop, so personnel the roll, together with that of the remaining care using CNC tools. The same procedure is are fully aware of which parts are to be treated chock acting on the excessive overhang would performed on the guides for the carriages which with particular care and attention. Moreover, have been enough to cause instability of the slide on the bed. The check for a perfect inter- feedback from the work shop is immediately whole assembly. To meet the customer require- face between the carriage and the bed is per- sent back to the technical department and used ments while ensuring a safe machine, Pomini’s formed by workshop personnel, who carefully to improve design details, not only those which engineers decided to design a central station verify the surfaces to obtain the required hydro- are related to machine performances, but also with movable supporting rollers. Using static performance and stiffness. The same phi- those connected to ease of assembly and ease of hydraulic cylinders and heavy duty sliding pads, losophy is adopted for spindles. Each part of transporting to the customer. This ‘circle’ of the central frame is capable of adjusting the dis- the spindle is dimensionally checked and then information is one of the keys of the Pomini’s tance between the support rollers in the direc- assembled by experienced members of a dedi- technical success, because it represents the co- tion of the roll axis. In this way, a safe distance cated spindle team. The set up of this critical operation between theory and reality, and leads component is carried out in several steps. First to a continuous improvement in the quality of the spindle is measured without oil pressure; machines.
then the hydrostatic bearings are activated and new measurements are recorded to check the Acknowledgements geometry, the clearances in the journal bearings, We would like to thank the following people who contributed and the pressure drop on restrictors. Once to the paper: Giovanni Bavestrelli, Guido Matarazzo, Rick proved that these values are within the desired McWhirter, Filippo Negrini, Silvia Soldati and Emanuele tolerances, the spindle can be tested with the Vanini. rotation movement. In this case, measurements of flow, temperature and pressure are taken to References monitor that the mutual influences of these val- 1 G Bavestrelli, ‘Roll Shop Management System’, AIST 2007, ues are within specification. Finally, the spindle Indianapolis, IN, USA is tested under load during grinding after care- 2 G Bavestrelli, ‘Automatic Roll Loaders for Intelligent Roll ful calibration of the wheel. Shops’, AIST 2012, Atlanta, GE, USA Another example of strict care in the assem- 3 A Gurrieri, C Trevisan ‘Roll Shop Simulator: an innovative bly of the machines is the bed of the new way to design roll shops’, AIST 2011, Indianapolis, IN, USA machine MW 479, dedicated to grind rolls for 4 G Boselli, D Quaglia, I Grataroli, M Cozzi, ‘Integrated roll cluster mills. The bed is made of polymeric shops for heavy plate applications’, AIST 2011, Indianapolis, granite, (ground natural granite composite in an IN, USA

Fig 9 Assembly at Pomini’s premises of the Contact chocking and dechocking machine and Pomini Tenova, Via L. da Vinci, 20, Castellanza (VA) 21053 – Italy chock tilter for a plate mill at Jindal JSPL, Tel +39 0331 444358 Fax +39 0331 444213 India [email protected]

32 – May/June 2012 – Steel Times International www.steeltimesint.com russia severstal_Layout 1 5/16/12 12:43 PM Page 1

Russia

Severstal: The russian company breaks new ground in liquidity management Growth on a global scale brings with it an increased urgency to create value from cash and working capital through greater efficiencies, and shore up liquidity and the balance sheet. Russian-based Severstal believes innovation holds the key to success in this respect.

THE shift in economic power from west to east A strategic ambition Liquidity management solutions is changing the landscape for emerging market Severstal is one of the world’s leading vertical- Severstal awarded its domestic cash manage- companies, allowing them to play an increasing- ly-integrated steel and mining companies with ment mandate to Citi and another bank (to ly assertive role in the global steel industry. assets in Russia, the US and Europe. The com- ensure competitiveness) to facilitate the restruc- Emerging markets are now at the heart of glob- pany has grown rapidly from its core steel oper- turing of its treasury operations. The company al trade flows and worldwide economic growth, ation to become an international conglomerate chose Citi’s Global Transaction Services team and their importance is expected to grow given with a focus on steel and related mining opera- due to its technological expertise and a willing- the challenging conditions in many OECD tions, which generated revenues of ness to meet Severstal’s credit requirements. In countries. Indeed, recent research1 shows that US$13.57bn in 2010. partnership with the bank, Severstal implement- by 2030, emerging markets will represent 70% Following this growth and expansion, ed a zero balancing structure across 14 domes- of the world’s US$180 trillion GDP compared Severstal recognised the need to centralise its tic Severstal subsidiaries. This liquidity solution to 52% of US$73 trillion in 20102. liquidity in two phases; initially for assets with- is the first in Russia to outsource an automated Naturally, this changing landscape provides in Russia and later for international assets. pooling structure across multiple entities, for a steel companies as a whole with huge opportu- Undoubtedly, with rating agencies and equity company of such scale. In addition to liquidity nities to satisfy the increasing appetite for com- analysts focused on companies with stronger management, Citi’s solution for Severstal modities and raw materials in emerging economies, which continue with efforts to mod- ‘………by 2030, emerging markets will represent 70% of the world’s US$180tr GDP ernise and improve their infrastructure. Indeed, compared to 52% of US$73tr in 2010’. latest figures show that global steel demand is set to increase by 5.4% this year compared to liquidity as the key driver of performance, opti- includes ‘SpeedCollect’ for orderly receivables 2011, according to the World Steel mising visibility and control of cash has become reconciliation. Association3. increasingly important. Enhancing the order-to-cash and purchase- Yet, while emerging markets such as Russia At the same time, the scarcity of credit means to-pay cycles with financial supply chain solu- and China present companies in the steel indus- that cash is a vital internal source of funds – tions such as these, releases substantial trapped try with new sourcing and sales opportunities, maximizing it is therefore crucial. Certainly internal liquidity for steel companies. One sig- they are not only important as new consumer companies such as Severstal need global visibil- nificant consideration for companies must be to markets. Companies headquartered there that ity of cash balances and real-time balance sheet adopt integrated solutions for each step of the were historically domestic in focus are respond- management. They also need a complete, end- financial supply chain. They need to ensure, not ing to the increased competitive pressure by to-end process, from collections to investments, only that they protect themselves, but that value expanding rapidly to become significant partici- to increase the velocity of cash flow and the is created at every point for the company and its pants in the global economy. Certainly, with the ability to net surpluses and deficits across counterparties in their supply chain. changing landscape, much of the growth comes regions. Additionally, as a result of a credit situation from local companies in emerging markets expanding into international markets. ‘Emerging markets are now at the heart of global trade flows These growth opportunities are not without and worldwide economic growth ………’ barriers however. As emerging market compa- nies continue to expand on a global stage, they Indeed, in Severstal’s case, the key desire was that remains tougher than before the financial are increasingly aware of the need to re-tool to optimise and control its cash and working crisis, inefficiency is now too costly to tolerate and establish robust treasury infrastructure to capital (given its multiple subsidiaries), improve and there is a recognition that extracting liquid- support their renewed growth strategies. visibility across accounts with multiple banks, ity from working capital can potentially free up Restructuring around high-margin businesses and lower its banking costs. Given that cash billions of dollars, while integrated working cap- and expansion into new-growth markets create management regulations can be more challeng- ital solutions have direct, significant, and bene- new and more complex risks and problems – ing in emerging markets, the goal was to bring ficial impacts on companies’ balance sheets. especially with regards to inefficiencies due to all countries within a global cash structure. decentralised cash management and treasury The company also wanted to ensure smooth Continuing expansion infrastructures, out-dated IT systems and the workflow and seamless IT system integration Severstal’s liquidity solution is now in place. By inherent trading risks in emerging markets. across the enterprise and an efficient invest- concentrating its cash across multiple sub- ment policy. Manual intervention and diverse sidiaries, Severstal has greatly reduced its work- Financial tools processes in different regions often inhibit ing capital requirements and debt. As the case of Severstal highlights, companies straight-through processing, resulting in longer In the current market, steel corporates face need not face these barriers alone – global processing cycles, increased settlement risk, an increased level of urgency to create value banks also have an important role to play in and higher operating costs. from cash and working capital through greater providing treasurers of steel companies with As a result, many companies are seeking to efficiencies, and shore up liquidity and the bal- techniques and solutions that will allow them re-engineer their key financial processes to ance sheet. to make the most of the opportunities this new drive operational excellence through automa- Certainly, it is vital that steel corporates world offers. Most of all, steel companies look- tion and centralisation. ready-themselves – by restructuring their ineffi- ing to expand into new markets need a bank At a basic level, this involves standardisation cient and expensive cash management and that can effectively offer the expertise, tools, of processes and a reduction in manual process- treasury infrastructures – for opportunities in and techniques to achieve greater visibility and es. More ambitious centralisation measures growth markets or risk losing market share to control over cash, manage risk, and drive work- include expanding the scope of shared service more prepared and ambitious competitors. ing capital efficiently. centres and rationalising banking relationships4. For more details of Citi Bank’s services visit: ‘…….scarcity of credit means that cash is a vital internal source of funds…..’ https://www.citibank.com/transactionservices/ home/contact.jsp

1 Citi Investment Research & Analysis’s Global Growth Generators report published in February. 2 Connecting Global Clients for Growth Casebook. 3 http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2012-02-20/news/31079638_1_steel-demand-steel-consumption-world-steel-association 4 Energy, Power, Chemical, Metals and Mining casebook

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Conference report

AISTech 2012 – An event bolstered by an improving US economy

By far the largest US conference and show, AISTech, organised by the Association for Iron & Steel Technology, held its annual event for the first time in Atlanta, Georgia. The well attended event, despite not being in a traditional steelmaking State, reflected the growing confidence expressed by the US steel industry. Much attention was focussed on ITMk3 as an alternative ironmaking process.

ATLANTA made a distinct contrast to the more frequent locations of Pittsburgh and Cleveland, not least because the temperature climbed to 30°C during the day with heavy rain showers which, while cooling the air for a while, added to the already high humidity. In fact, the weather in the mid west succeed- ed in hampering proceedings by disrupting air traffic forcing the guest speaker for the Brimacombe Memorial Lecture, Dr Alan W Cramb, Snr VP academic affairs, Illinois Institute of Technology, to make a virtual Fig 1 Mesabi Nugget appearance via a somewhat temperamental project ITMk3 rotary video link. His topic was ‘Steel Research – hearth furnace Then, Now & Tomorrow’ which, after tracing the history of iron & steel from evidence of the use of meteoritic iron in BC2900 and the man- Committee (JPC), a department of the Steel that no refining can be performed in such vessels. ufacture of iron by the Hittites around Ministry of the Government of India. Obtaining land to set up greenfield mills BC1460, he jumped to the 19 century research After describing the growth of the modern remains a problem and has led to the post- fathers and from there traced developments steel industry in India which started with the ponement or cancellation of several projects right up to the present. The Materials Paradigm setting up of Tata Steel in 1907 as a private which may have otherwise attracted foreign has changed, he pointed out adding to the enterprise, he traced the present boom in the investment. interrelationship of Structure, Properties, expansion of Indian steel to deregulation in Major infrastructural improvements were Performance and Process, that of Society (or 1991 which opened up the industry to private planned for the new five-year plan which start- eco-Processing) reflecting the need to reduce investment. Now, 77% of all steel is made in ed in April 2012. Urbanisation was also increas- waste, energy and pollution (Table 1). privately owned mills. Despite this success, he ing which presently leads to a rural population He briefly reviewed some of the technologies, said there were no immediate plans for the gov- consuming just 5kg/y of steel per person com- some proven and others still being developed, to ernment to completely divest itself of the Steel pared to an average of 58kg for India over all. meet this new paradigm, such as the European Authority of India (SAIL) but the government Growth of steelmaking capacity during the ULCOS programme aimed at halving steel’s had reduced its stake in these businesses. There current plan is to reach 149Mt for crude steel, carbon footprint. He referred to potentially dis- was some evidence that the time was not right 115Mt for finished steel and domestic demand ruptive technologies such as carbonless smelt- to privatise SAIL as the attempt to privatise to reach 113Mt. 95% of this growth would be in ing, methods to produce low volumes of iron at Visakhapatnam Steel Plant, a 3Mt/y State brownfield sites and just 5% in greenfield loca- reduced costs, composites with steel and how, if owned steelmaker spun off to Rashtriya Ispat tions. the ability to be able to pump iron was available Nigam Ltd, in a bid to divest the State share, Referring briefly to the topic of the closure of – as is the case for aluminium –the process route has so far failed to attract private bidders illegal iron ore mines in Karnataka State result- would no longer rely on gravity and innovative despite being well advanced with an investment ing in a shortage of ore to domestic suppliers, changes would be possible. to double capacity by the end of 2012. he said the affair would soon be resolved. Future research, he said, needs global Mr Basak pointed out the leading role India The meeting then adjourned for the opening alliances as was the case with the Ultra Light has in DRI production, over half of which is made of the exhibition which was second only to Steel Auto Body (ULSAB) project, which has with coal in rotary kilns, the product then being Pittsburgh in the number of exhibitors which proposed the use of a much higher proportion fed to induction furnaces which has the limitation reached 435. 5000 delegates had registered to of high strength and ultra high strength steels and also new but proven technologies such as Industry Primary energy Primary energy Total combustion Energy Emissions laser beam welding, hydroforming and tailored use (trBtu) use (GWh) emissions MtCO2eq (%) (%) blanks made up of different types and thickness of steels joined by laser welding. Some of these All Manufacturing 21972 6437.0 1260 100 100 technologies have now been adopted by many Chemicals 4519 1324.0 275 21 22 car manufacturers. Petroleum Refining 3546 1038.9 244 16 19 Dr Cramb concluded by calling for closer joint Forestry 3553 1041.0 138 16 11 research between industry and academia with Food & Beverage 1935 566.9 117 9 10 the aim of finding radical process innovation. Steel Industry* 2468 723.1 119 11 9 The second lecture of the day was the Transport 904 264.8 53 4 4 International Alliance lecture in which AIST Aluminium 603 176.6 36 3 3 invite a prominent non US person to deliver a Glass 466 136.5 26 2 2 lecture on practices in their region. Source: www1.eere.energy.gov/industry/rd/footprints.html

This year it was the turn of India to be the *Steel includes fabrication & foundry. Iron & Steel alone used 1481trBtu (433.9GWh) and emits 62.3Mt CO2eq focus and a presentation was made by G K Basak, Executive Secretary of the Joint Plant Table 1 Energy and Carbon footptint in USA for various industries (2006 data)

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Conference report

In concluding, Mr Stratman thanked the sup- moving away from energy, what are the forecasts port of the AIST executive committee during for the automotive and construction industry. his term of membership. Kent D Peaslee, Indeed, in an innovation in this 10th Town Hall Steelmaking Chair Missouri University of Meeting a video question was presented to the Science & Technology, takes over the panel on their commitment to the automotive Presidency for the next 12 months. industry by none other than William Clay Ford The William T Hogan Lecture in memory of Jr, Executive Chairman Ford Motor Co. Fr Hogan of Fordham University was presented Two other video questions were later formu- by Joseph Alvarado, president & CEO of lated, and a live web cast took place during the Commercial Metals Company of Texas. He session with an invitation to viewers to e-mail in chose an optimistic topic ‘The Light at the end questions. However, of the 60 received from of the Tunnel’. the audience or by e-mail only a handful were CMC, he said, started in 1915 as a metals placed to the panel due to time constraints. recycler and now has 200 recycling plants across Other topics discussed were Health & Safety the country and also started up a micromill in in which all the steel representatives said was Arizona in 2009 which has a capacity of 300kt/y top on their agenda; what advice would you Fig 2 Nuggets of iron produced by melting of rebar with the aim to supply the local market. give to the US government on creating a manu- DRI pellets in the RHF The plant, he said, was built in just 18 months facturing economy; globalisation and the unfair on a ‘greenfield’ (desert) site. By linking the subsidising of production by currency manipu- attend with a choice of 405 technical presenta- caster direct to the mill yield is 100%. The lation and finally, how to recruit and retain a tions from 43 countries in 18 parallel sessions. longest sequence cast to date has produced 6 suitable workforce – one surprising opinion of a Day 2 opened with the annual President’s miles of billet. top executives was to pay better wages, while all Breakfast at which a number of awards are pre- He reviewed the growth of the steel industry agreed to get into schools and universities to sented, chief among which is ‘Steelmaker of the since 1944 looking at its highs and lows of pro- improve the image of the industry as a high tech Year’. This year the award was presented to duction. “We had just suffered the worst reces- business. André B Gerdau Johannpeter, CEO Gerdau, sion since the 1930s, but, at least for USA, AIST do much towards the latter and during the Brazilian long products steelmaker with there was now evidence of recovery” he said. the event held a ‘Materials Camp’ in which high steelmaking presence in 14 countries including The National Inquiries Index (ABI) was show- school students attended to carry out simple USA. ing the first improvement since 2009. Financial experiments on materials topics. Retiring AIST President, R Joseph Stratman markets were also improving reaching 13256 (Exec VP Nucor) addressed the meeting saying points recently the first time over 13 000 since Fig 03 Overview of SDI’s Mesabi Nugget it was important for USA to leverage its position the recession, although it was still short of the plant at Hoyt Lakes, northern Minnesota, on natural resources as it has ore, coal and now pre-recession peak of 14 093 of October 2007. USA low cost gas. It should be left to the industry to GDP, he said, is a lagging indicator but this create jobs and ensure fair trade practices with showed 3% growth in 2010 due to the govern- minimal interference from the government. ment stimulation packages. Three million jobs Membership of AIST was over 14 000 indi- had been created – but this must be seen in the vidual members at the end of 2011, an increase context of nine million lost in the recession. of 11% y-o-y. There are 21 Chapters supporting Housing starts were still well down on the 2.2 members including five overseas. He praised million in 2006 with 700k forecast for 2012, but the Chapters for recruiting new members in this was an increase of 26% over 2011. Other particular the Indian Chapter which increased markets were recovering more rapidly with membership from 97 to 272 in 2011. B M automotive in particular rebounding quicker Mukhopadhyay, Adviser to Essar Engineering than expected. Services received the Outstanding Chapter On steel production in USA, he acknowl- Award for this feat. He also announced that edged a shift away from western producers to there was progress in forming a new Chapter in Asia pointing out that 60 years ago USA was the Italy. There was also an agreement with the world’s largest producer of steel but it had fall- Associação Brasileira de Metalurgia, Materiais e en to third place by 2011 when it produced Technical presentations Mineração (ABM) for AIST members to join 85.4Mt and was forecast to fall to 5th place by With 405 presentations it is only possible to do ABM at a reduced rate. 2025 with an estimated output of 109.9Mt. justice to a few and those that appeared to offer AIST has launched a Process Benchmark The attraction on the third day was the ‘Town fundamentally new technologies will be (APB) for member companies to compare their Hall Meeting’ in which a panel of five steel reviewed. performance against their peers and also a digi- executives and one banker were questioned by One of the most interesting was a progress tal library available to members and colleges Jon Delano, Money & Politics Editor of TV sta- report on the Mesabi Nugget project operated and has published the 11th edition of ‘The tion KDKA, Pittsburgh. by Steel Dynamics Inc – a paper unfortunately Making, Shaping and Treating of Steel’ in three Topics covered included the impact of not included in the CD of Proceedings. volumes covering Ironmaking, Steelmaking and exploiting the many shale gas Plays within the Presented by Jeff Hansen, Plant Manager refining and Casting. US which has seen the price of natural gas fall to Mesabi Nugget, he first described the long start the unprecedented level of $2.0/MBtu com- up period (5-years) of the rotary hearth furnace pared with $10-14 in most other steelmaking of SDI’s sister company, Iron Dynamics which countries. Also, how this abundant supply of gas was commissioned in 1999 but has worked only impacts on raw material strategy, for example, intermittently since that date. Designed to pro- Nucor’s decision to build DRI units at its new duce 240kst/y of DRI which is then melted in a site in Louisiana rather than blast furnaces as submerged arc furnace, output normally does originally announced. Another topic was how not exceed 100kst/y. However, it treats mill the energy market drives capital spending and, reverts rather than ore which limits availability of raw materials. Possibly this prelude was a way of preparing the audience for the delays in get- ting the Mesabi Nugget project producing at its design rate of 500kt/y. The Mesabi Nugget plant uses Kobe Steel’s ITMk3 technology and so far is the only commercial plant of this type in operation and several proposed projects await the developments at SDI. The plant uses a blend of ore, 50% coal by volume, flux and binder which is pellatised in a drum, then dried on an oscillating grid in an

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435 companies exhibited at the event

oven heated by the waste heat from the rotary hearth furnace. The pellets are charged to the rotating hearth (Fig 1), where they pass below burners which heat them to a sufficiently high temperature to reduce the ore to DRI which then melts but is then cooled sufficiently rapid- ly to produce a nugget of iron of similar dimen- sions to the original ore pellet (Fig 2). Any attached slag is removed by vibrating and screening the discharge. The plant, owned 81% by SDI and 19% by Kobe Steel, started opera- tions in January 2010 and produced just 75kst Yakov Gordon of Hatch presented the paper – The Tecnored process is still in Pilot Plant of iron in that year due to various equipment ‘Selection of Ironmaking Technology for stage and a demonstration plant only recent- outages. This improved to 156kst in 2011 and Existing Specific Conditions of European Part ly started operation. Because of this the so far in 2012 a monthly production record was of Russian Federation’. A fixed methodology Tecnored process cannot be considered for set in March. One of the most serious problems developed by Hatch was used for selection of industrial use before a demonstration plant has been damage to the hearth refractories the most suitable ironmaking technology for has proven successful. (Not presented in the because of the aggressive nature of FeO formed specific site conditions to produce the best paper was the fact that the process is now as an interim stage of reduction to iron, but a product, best raw materials, best ironmaking owned by Vale who see the technology as a new hearth material was installed earlier this technology and the best location of the iron- means of adding value to their ore mining year which has proved resistant to FeO. making facility to supply scrap substitutes for activities and are not prepared to commer- The composition of the iron produced is C the Client’s needs for an annual production of cialise the process. 2.5 – 3.0%, Si 0.9%, S <0.1% and the degree of 2.6Mt at one site and 1.6Mt at another. They – Finex is excluded for further study for a com- metallisation 97% which is superior to DRI. conclude: bination of poor payback as well as technical The size range of the nuggets is 80% 6-16mm. – ITmk3 is a winning technology for the risks as Posco has released limited informa- The melting characteristics in the EAF have client’s needs, capable of producing a good tion on operational experience and raw mate- proved similar to other iron units. quality product from the available raw mate- rials. The installation of Finex requires high A good supply of ore concentrate has not yet rials. Capex and long pay-back. The fluidization been established despite SDI having purchased – The position of ITmk3 as a preferred tech- nature of the process is a complex operation 2000 acres of land on the Mesabi Range to nology will become even stronger with a bet- and sensitive to iron ore properties. mine taconite ore as it is still awaiting permits to ter understanding of the nugget selling price. – Natural gas based Midrex and HYL are elim restart mining despite the area having been pre- – The RHF Smelter combination is a second inated for their 2.6Mt/y capacity limitations viously mined. technology that could be recommended to at all six locations considered and 1.6Mt/y The capital cost of the project was $325M, of the client. capacity at the mine site due to the limitation which $100M was for environmental measures, – Gas based HYL and Midrex technology of natural gas supply. it took two years to construct and required over could not be recommended mainly because – Midrex and Tenova HYL, fusing coal gas are one million man-hours (Fig 3). of the poor raw material quality and as a eliminated for poor payback related to high Despite a drain on SDI’s balance sheet due result, the low IRR. capital cost for installation of a coal gasifier, to the delays in reaching design capacity, Mr – 2.6Mt/y capacity of the plant with the best comparatively high amount of oxygen needed Hansen has confidence that SDI will continue location and raw materials improves the IRR for the coal gasification process and also lim- with the project pointing out that in just 15 to 20.3% for ITmk3 and 18.5% for RHF ited industrial application. years the company has grown from a single steel Smelter. For 1.6Mt/y capacity, the IRRs are – Corex is eliminated based on high capital mill operation to become the 5th largest pro- 19.7% and 15.6%, respectively. cost and long payback period. ducer of C steels in the country with 80 facili- – The amount of scrap released from the – Fluidized bed processes Finmet, Circored, ties across the USA, operating five electric arc client’s steelmaking facilities is estimated as Circofer etc were not considered because of furnaces and is a Fortune 500 listed company 1.13Mt/y for the case using the ITmk3 high capital costs and/or inefficient perform- employing some 6500 people. process. ance demonstrated in industrial conditions: Anticipating the success of the ITMk3 high specific fuel rate, significant downtime process Hatch Ltd presented a paper, A risk assessment of various other ironmaking for maintenance and repairs, small single unit ‘Combining New Coke and Ironmaking technologies concluded that: capacity. These processes also are very sensi- Technologies to Reduce the Carbon Footprint – Russia’s Romelt is eliminated due to its tive to properties of iron ore at high metalli- in the Production of Steel’ which envisages the unproven track record for industrial purpos- sation. coupling of heat recovery cokemaking with es and potential scaling difficulties. Also – Production of HBI in metallisation processes ITmk3 ironmaking and EAF steelmaking to technology has a middle pay-back period with indirect heating, such as FineSmelt and exploit synergies between these three processes ranking. Matmor were not considered because of lim- and to use this to reduce the carbon footprint – HIsmelt has advanced and has reached ited single unit capacity, lack of experience to produce hot rolled coil. The coke would be demonstration stage but is shutdown at pres- even at demonstration plant stage, extremely sold as a merchant product and power generat- ent and it is still unproven for industrial use. high coal rates, possible problems with accre- ed from the heat recovered from the non-by- After five years of operation, the plant was tion formation at high metallisation degrees, product recovery coke oven and ITMk3 iron not able to demonstrate better than 80% of reduced carbon content in DRI/HBI and nugget process (See Steel Times International the nameplate capacity. It may also prove dif- potential problems with transportation and Vol 36 No1Jan 2012 p26). ficult to control and will require a high level combustion of un-cleaned coal volatiles. A second Hatch paper also came out in sup- of process automation. Also it has a poor pay- With the exception of the ITMk3 process, port of ITMk3 for use by a client in Russia. back period. papers on alternative ironmaking were disap-

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Conference report

pointing this year with no advances reported on only 25% by weight of the input timber and this Midrex which are currently supplying a 1.8Mt/y previous years. would have to be increased to at least 47% oth- DRI module to Jindal Steel & Power at Angul Dr Paulo Santos Assis, of Morro do Cruzeiro, erwise emissions from collecting and transport- in Orissa, India which will use Lurgi coal gasifi- School of Mines Brazil ably assisted by under- ing the timber waste would exceed those cation technology. graduate student Carolina Avilva Martini, reduced by using charcoal. One of the most popular papers in terms of spoke on the potential in Brazil to ferment cat- The paper calculates that at 25% pyrolysis ‘standing room only’ was that presented by Dr tle dung to produce methane which could yield 17.9Mt of wood litter would be required Ing Hans Bodo Lüngen, Steel Institute VDEh, either be used for blast furnace injection or to meet Canada’s present ironmaking produc- Germany on Measures to Increase Efficiency reformed to H2 + CO for DRI production. tion, this would be pellatised prior to pyrolisis and to Reduce CO2 Emissions in Iron and Despite calculating that 7.19x108 m3/day of bio to form 3.8Mt pellet char (containing 87.3%C) Steelmaking in Germany and Europe. gas could be produced, this paper showed no sufficient to meet Canada’s present output of EU27 crude steel production was 177.4Mt in advances on that presented in 2010 and failed 7.8Mt/y of blast furnace metal. At 47% pyrolisis 2011, or 11.6% of the world total. In the EU 27 to address the fundamental question of how the yield, only 9.8Mt of biomass would be required the share of oxygen steelmaking has remained dung is to be collected efficiently from the a year. at 56-58% over the past 30 years. Electric arc majority of the cattle herd which are not con- Initially, the charcoal could replace up to 25% furnaces have completely replaced the obsolete fined in buildings. Also the danger of fugitive of the coke needs of the BF by injection, but open hearth furnaces. emissions of methane to the atmosphere which eventually it would be hoped that new tech- Huge efforts are undertaken to reduce CO2 are 20 times more potent as a greenhouse gas nologies or mini-blast furnaces could use 100% emissions with the ULCOS programme aiming than CO2 was not considered. charcoal. to halve emissions through new technologies, as Likewise, a paper on the use of forestry litter Another paper by Midrex, under the catego- conventional plants are already operating at the left after felling trees by K Ng of ry, Alternative Ironmaking, the production of minimum possible level of CO2 emissions. CanmetEnergy was similar to that presented in Syngas from coal to supply a gas suitable for a Uncertainties for steelmaking in Europe 2010 and again failed to address the problem of DRI shaft furnace rich in H2 and CO but still remain because the draft of the European phosphorus which is concentrated in the bark containing 3% or so of CH4 necessary for effi- Commission for the CO2 emission trading peri- and branches of trees – a factor seen as detri- cient reduction. od from 2013 onwards has set benchmark val- mental to the quality of iron and recognised by Such a gas does not require a steam reformer ues for coke oven plants, sinter plants and blast our forefathers since the dawn of charcoal blast as required when using natural gas, although furnaces below the minimum achievable level. furnaces in the 13th century – all be it without this does have the disadvantage that the CO2 in This increases the danger for carbon leakage the knowledge that P was the cause. The paper the recirculated top gas is not removed as in a with steelmaking migrating to regions with less did recognise that efficiency of pyrolysis to car- reformer where it is converted to more CO. stringent emission regulations. bonise the timber is presently too low, yielding This paper was presented by G Metius of The Proceedings are available on CDRom from the Association for Iron & Steel Diary Date Technology, 186 Thorn Hill Road, Warrendale, AISTech 2013 6-9 May 2013 David Lawrence Convention Centre, PA 15086-7528 USA Pittsburgh Pa. Tel +1 724 814 3000 Fax +1 724 814 3001 e-mail [email protected] web www.aist.org/

40 – May/June 2012 – Steel Times International www.steeltimesint.com know your steel_Layout 1 5/17/12 8:59 AM Page 1

Know your steel

This is the second article in a series during 2012 devoted to the basic technologies required to make steel. In this article methods of production of iron and its conversion to steel are addressed. By Keith Walker*

READERS will be aware that steel is produced from iron, and the iron is produced from iron ores. Such ores are generally oxides of iron, or rarely today, carbonates which are converted to oxides by heating (roasting). There are many Tapping a blast furnace naturally occurring types of useful iron ores found in large deposits, the most prominent being in Russia, Ukraine, China, Australia, Brazil and the USA. Since iron ores are very abundant in the Earth’s crust, reserves are essentially limitless. The most commonly used The basics of iron and ore is hematite (Fe2O3) which can occur in rich deposits, but there are also large deposits of magnetite (Fe2O4) (which is magnetic) making steel-making – Part 2 it relatively easy to concentrate. Ores are rarely found as pure iron oxides and a great deal of processing is often required to turn them into Producing iron and steel useful ironmaking materials. This processing, called ‘beneficiation’, will not be covered here, but since some ores contain only 25-35% Fe, into the top. Most furnaces have what can be whereas ore regarded as useful for ironmaking considered to be an air-lock chamber at the top should contain 65-68% Fe, the need for such - one ‘bell’ is lifted to allow charging, then processing is clear. closed. A second bell is lifted below allowing Iron ore delivered to integrated steelplants is the materials to fall into the furnace without generally in two forms: lump ore for direct losing much pressure. charging into the blast furnace, and sintering In the hearth of the furnace there is liquid ore. Most ironmakers operate a process known iron with liquid slag floating on it. The slag as ‘sintering’, because it produces a superior forms from the impurities (gangue) in the ore material compared to directly charged lump which combines with the flux (limestone). The ore. In this continuous process, finely-sized ore iron and slag are periodically released separate- is mixed with fluxes and coke fines and heated ly through a taphole in the furnace. The tem- to around 1480ºC on a moving bed, which acts perature of both is usually around 1450ºC. The to agglomerate the materials. The sinter pro- slag is cooled and commonly used in construc- duced has improved size range and better prop- tion of roads or to make cement and the iron is erties at the high temperatures met inside the transported, several hundred tonnes at a time, blast furnace, and also reduces the need for Each DRI shaft furnace at Emirates Steel is still as a liquid, to the steelmaking plant. This separate charging of fluxes. As an alternative to capable of producing 1.4Mt/y of DRI need not be done quickly since the iron will sinter, fine ores may be pelletised by combining often remain liquid for 24 hours. The iron is with a binder and heating to produce near the iron ore to remove oxygen from it. This referred to as ‘hot metal’ or sometimes ‘pig spherical balls 10mm or so in diameter. This is process only works at high temperatures and as iron’, although strictly the latter refers to solidi- normally carried out by the mining company the materials gradually move down the shaft fied iron which has been cast into small moulds. whereas sinter is produced in the steelworks inside the furnace, the ore is progressively Blast furnaces vary considerably in size, with which has the advantage that dusts collected reduced, finally producing liquid iron at the a hearth diameter usually above 8m and up to from blast and steel furnaces can be returned to bottom, known as the hearth. 14m. It is considered difficult to go any larger the process via the sinter line. Making coke from coal is an expensive than 14m since the hot blast air cannot reach The blast furnace is a tall, water-cooled shaft process, necessary because coke must be suffi- the centre. lined with refractories into which all the materi- ciently strong to withstand the weight of mate- There are alternatives to the blast furnace for als needed to make iron are charged into the top. rials above it in the furnace whereas coal will making iron from ore. Direct Reduced Iron Principally, but not exclusively, these are lump crush. Once crushed, the fine material will (DRI, also sometimes called sponge iron) is the ore, sinter, coke and lime. It is a chemical reduc- essentially block the furnace and so obstruct most common and in this direct reduction tion process in which the materials are heated by the passage of gases through it. To lower the process, of which the Midrex shaft furnace is burning the coke, the air required to do so being consumption of coke it is possible to blow coal the best known. Hydrogen plus CO, produced heated to high temperature and blown through a dust into the furnace at the bottom along with by ‘cracking’ natural gas is used to reduce the series of pipes (tuyeres) around the circumfer- the hot air blast and this is so-called ‘pulverised iron ore. However, it is a solid-state process ence of the furnace about 2m above its base. coal injection’ or PCI. This can markedly which operates between 760 and 930ºC, so the This air is the ‘blast’, and is blown in at high tem- reduce the amount of coke required. In some impurities which are removed from the liquid perature having been heated up by capturing the blast furnaces, oil or natural gas is used instead iron in the blast furnace to form a slag remain heat of the hot exhaust gases from the furnace to of PCI, or even pelletised waste plastics, all in the DRI product. This is not necessarily a do so, so saving energy. cheaper sources of carbon than coke. problem, since DRI is further refined in electric However, the coke is not entirely intended as The blast furnace operates at a modest pres- arc furnaces (EAF) and the melting releases a fuel, but also as a reductant. The carbon in sure, since this accelerates the reactions. Since these. DRI commonly contains over 94%Fe. the coke becomes a mixture of mainly CO and it is therefore a sealed furnace, there is clearly a Many other processes have been attempted some CO2 when burned and the CO acts on problem with continually charging materials over the years to replace the blast furnace and

*Dr Walker was formerly with Corus Group and is now MD of the steel consultancy SteelFolk e-mail [email protected]

www.steeltimesint.com Steel Times International – May/June 2012 – 45 know your steel_Layout 1 5/17/12 8:59 AM Page 2

Know your steel

Charging a BOF converter with liquid iron

Right: An electric arc furnace melts its charge by arcing between the three graphite electrodes (centre). Flue gas and dust is carried away in the large water cooled pipe to the left

attempts made to make steel direct from the also reacts with impurities in the iron and acts them. It is now common for the EAF to also use ore. The few that have survived are the Corex as a reservoir to contain them separate from the large amounts of oxygen to accelerate the process which produces molten iron using gas- steel being made. process by providing additional heating, some- sified coal and lump ore or pellet, Finex which The oxygen starts to remove the carbon times by also injecting a fuel. This is supplied is similar to Corex but treats ore fines through quickly, forming CO and CO2 which generates usually through several lances to evenly distrib- a cascade of fluidised chambers and ITMk3 a large amount of heat. This is the only source ute the heating. which uses a rotary hearth to produce a nodule of heating in most BOFs – there is no external It is worth noting that most plants operate a of molten iron which then freezes, the charge heating needed. Indeed, scrap or iron ore may ‘hot heel’ practice in which some molten steel is being pelletised ore fines combined with coal have to be added to cool the reaction. Carbon retained in the furnace at the end of tapping, dust. is removed in around 20 minutes from 4.5% to which speeds up the next heat. around 0.06% and the temperature commonly In recent years, due to advances in electrical Oxygen steelmaking reaches 1680ºC before tapping. engineering, it has become economical to build To return to the liquid iron tapped from the This is very much higher than the iron charg- direct current (DC) furnaces of the same blast furnace, this is most usually made into ing temperature (and of course the scrap has capacity as the EAF. In these furnaces there is a steel using a basic oxygen furnace (BOF), also melted), but a higher temperature is necessary single electrode at the top of the furnace and known as a converter. This is because a very because the melting point of steel increases as using special conducting refractories in the bot- large amount of oxygen is required to refine the its carbon content is lowered. tom allows a second electrode to be used iron, since it is saturated with carbon at around It is common for the BOF to feature bottom beneath them. There are some advantages to 4.5% and most of this needs to be removed. bubbling with gas such as argon or nitrogen the power supply grid with this set up, but the Why the BOF is good for this will be seen later. through special bricks in the base, but not all steelmaking is the same as for the EAF. It is very common to remove sulphur from do. This agitates the steel and speeds up chem- The choice of process (EAF or blast fur- the iron before charging it to the BOF, since its ical reactions. nace/BOF) tends to be related to the availabil- adequate removal in the BOF presents techni- Less common are BOFs in which the oxygen ity of iron ore. It is worth noting that nearly all cal difficulties. is blown through the bottom of the furnace, steel scrap is recycled but there is insufficient to The iron is treated with materials which have rather than using a lance, and the familiar meet world demand without using iron ore to a high affinity for sulphur (eg magnesium and Bessemer converter (which did this but used air make additional steel. In countries where his- calcium) whilst still liquid. Some plants can also rather than oxygen) is obsolete now. torically poor grade local ores were used (like remove phosphorus from the iron, but this is Today, most BOF plants collect the large the UK), the coastal sites which can readily less common and justified in only special cir- amounts of CO generated and this gas is used import high grade ore are the ones which have cumstances. The sulphur usually comes from to re-heat the steel in the furnaces in the rolling survived. The exception is Sheffield, with no the coke and the phosphorus from the ore. mills later on. local ore, and where EAF has always been the As well as the liquid iron (at around 1350ºC), choice. The use of direct reduction processes steel scrap is also recycled in the BOF – com- Electric Arc Furnace has tended to be pioneered in regions with no monly, around 15 - 20% of the total charge is Before moving on to tapping the steel from the coal but ample supplies of natural gas. scrap. Both are charged into the mouth of the BOF, it is sensible to return to the EAF. This The exception is India, which is presently the BOF as it is tilted downwards to allow filling. It process is considerably older than the BOF, the world’s largest producer of DRI, where over is then turned upright and resembles quite latter only becoming possible following the half the DRI is made in coal fired rotary kilns. closely a belly pot of far greater volume than is development of the production of tonnage oxy- Once the steel is made by either process, fur- required to contain the iron and scrap. gen in the 1950s. Originally, electric arc steel- ther processing is similar. The refined liquid A steel, water cooled lance is lowered into making melted scrap (and some pig iron) but as steel is tapped from the furnace into a ladle for the BOF but remains above the surface of the noted above, DRI is now commonly used as further (secondary) processing and then casting. molten metal. Pure oxygen is blown onto the well. This is less so in industrial nations where Basically, the steel at this stage is pure iron, surface of the metal at supersonic speed and a scrap is plentiful and it makes economic sense from which the desired grade or quality of steel reaction between it and the iron begins. to recycle it, but technically DRI is relatively can be made. There are thousands of different It is now that a lot of splashing is desirable, free from residual elements (eg copper) whilst chemical specifications for steel products and which is why the volume of the BOF is much scrap commonly contains a significant amount. although the rolling processes can be used to larger than might be expected. Iron usually Therefore, EAF steelmakers may use it to help to achieve the required mechanical proper- retains some silicon as an impurity and this is reduce residuals to low levels for special steels. ties, such as strength, the manipulation of removed first by the oxygen to form a silica slag. Whilst there are some variants as usual, the chemical composition remains the key tool for For this reason, lime is added to the BOF to most common EAF has three carbon electrodes the metallurgist. neutralise the silica which would otherwise between which an intense arc is struck. This This will be the topic of the next article in this attack the refractory lining. The slag formed heats the materials inside the furnace and melts series.

46 – May/June 2012 – Steel Times International www.steeltimesint.com HISTORY 2_Layout 1 5/16/12 2:57 PM Page 1

History The winding house was powered by two steam engines, the larger of 3300 hp

The lattice construction of the headgear is designed to reduce weight because of the unstable nature of the ground

Astley Green Colliery Museum

Location Map Opening Times: www.agcm.org.uk/visiting.shtml Sunday: 1.30 pm to 5.00 pm Higher Green Lane, Astley Green, Tuesday: 1.30 pm to 5.00 pm Tyldesley, Manchester Lancashire M29 7JB Thursday: 1.30 pm to 5.00 pm Astley Green – The last surviving monument

of Lancashire coal By Harry Hodson COAL mining in Lancashire from the 18th cen- passenger railway line built in 1830 by George edge of each ring had cutting shoes to over- tury onwards was probably more prolific than Stephenson across the infamous soft ground of come ground resistance as it was forced down anywhere else in Britain. The most concentrat- Chat Moss. Also, Britain’s first industrial canal, the shaft using four hydraulic jacks exerting a ed area was the Wigan Coalfield which had built for the Duke of Bridgewater by the engi- total of 2000 tons pressure. A massive concrete more than 1000 shafts sunk within a radius of neer James Brindley, runs through the colliery ring weighing 3000 tons had to be made around five miles from the town. Many of these shafts precincts. Although strategically placed regard- the pit bank to resist the thrust of the jacks as were only sunk to the shallower seams, rarely ing transport facilities this was not the main rea- they forced the ring down the shaft like a giant exceeding depths of about 200m. The main rea- son for sinking the new pit at Astley Green, it pastry cutter. son for this was lack of technology and equip- was the expectation of winning large quantities This process continued for an incredible 400 ment to extract coal from the deeper seams, of of coal. Sinking of the shaft commenced in feet before traditional sinking could be which there were several more running at an 1908 and intersected several seams of coal, the resumed. Sinking of the No 2 shaft was in incline of 1 in 6 from North to South of the deepest being the Arley seam at about 900m. progress at the same time, but with fewer prob- county. These seams outcropped at the surface Each of these seams produced a different type lems. Nevertheless, it resulted in some of the in an east west line about level with the town of of coal for different markets, such as domestic, greatest names in engineering having to be Preston. Consequently, there were a number of coking, boiler, furnace, by products and others. called in to get the colliery up and running. The shallow mines in this area which could extract well known Fraser & Chalmers of Erith Kent coal from these seams, but in only limited quan- New technology provided portable steam engines to work tities. As the industrial revolution gathered The sinking of any coal mine to the deepest Ingersoll Rand air compressors. British pace, the demand for coal soared and by about seams requires a good deal of technology from Thompson - Houston and Lancashire Electric 1850 attempts began to exploit the richer and different sources, especially mechanical engi- Power were responsible for the electric plant. A deeper seams lying south of the county close to neering. This pit tested sinking technology plentiful supply of local steel needed for the the Cheshire border. beyond its known limits at the time. Sinking washery and coal screening plants was erected had begun in the traditional manner of excavat- by Heenan & Froude, makers of the famous Steel and steam ing the earth using a temporary wooden head- Blackpool Tower. The onset of deep mining called for much bet- frame from which the spoil was wound to the The headframe had to be robust but of light- ter equipment than had previously been used. surface. After every few feet of excavation at weight construction due to the unstable foun- Developments in steam engine technology the required diameter an iron ring was inserted dation of the pit bank. For this reason, it was of began to address this problem with the building and secured into the sides of the shaft. This lattice construction. It was erected by Head of powerful and efficient engines capable of allowed the bricklaying gang to line the shaft Wrightson of Stockton-on-Tees, although winding coal from much greater depths. This within the ring. Heenan & Froude would have been well quali- period coincided with the beginning of the The process was repeated as excavation pro- fied for the task. The two massive steam modern steel industry, which in due course gressed. However, it soon became evident that engines needed to wind the coal were built by replaced the use of timber in mines. this method would not work with this particular Yates & Thorn of Blackburn. At a depth of Headframes which supported the winding sinking. After a depth of about 6m the earth 850m, sinking of the No 1 shaft finished, hav- gear were usually constructed of massive timber became unstable, causing the sides of the shaft ing reached a plentiful supply of Cannel coal. baulks held together by wrought iron straps. to collapse. It was thought that this would only The winding engine for this shaft was the 500 Wooden headframes had been known to catch be a temporary fault for a few feet, but tests ton twin tandem cross compound Yates & fire resulting in lost production, and more showed otherwise. It was also known that Thom engine of 3300hp, the larger of the two importantly, sometimes loss of life. Many of George Stephenson had similar problems when engines. This engine is now preserved and occa- these wooden headframes began to be replaced laying his railway line across the Chat Moss just sionally run with compressed air for demonstra- by steel from 1870 onwards, and, incredibly, two miles further south. It was decided to insert tional purposes. quite a number of these 19th century structures ‘tubbing’ into the sides of the shaft to prevent Astley Green Colliery is now a preserved site were still in use as late as 1960. any further movement. This practice had been thanks to a dedicated band of enthusiasts who In 1908 the St Helens based Pilkington fam- used before and usually solved the problem have laboured over the past 40 years to save it ily of glass manufacturers decided to add after a short distance. The tubbing consisted of from the demolition man and preserve it for coalmining to their business and chose to sink a sections of cast iron rings about 5 feet in depth. others to enjoy. The year 2012 is the centenary shaft quite close to their main works. The These were cast in sections and bolted together of completion of No 1 headgear and every choice of site was the rural village of Astley to form a ring 21 feet (6.5m) diameter which effort is being made to preserve it, the last sur- Green, which lies quite close to Britain’s first was the size required for the shaft. The bottom viving monument of the Lancashire Coalfield. ᔢ

48 – May/June 2012 – Steel Times International www.steeltimesint.com