What is steel?
Steel is an alloy of iron and carbon containing less than 2% carbon and 1% manganese and small amounts of silicon, phosphorus, sulphur and oxygen. Steel is the most important engineering and construction material in the world. It is used in every aspect of our lives, from automotive manufacture to construction products, from steel toecaps for protective footwear to refrigerators and washing machines and from cargo ships to the finest scalpel for hospital surgery.
Who invented steel?
A British inventor called Henry Bessemer is generally credited with the invention of steel in 1856. He founded the Bessemer Steel Company in Sheffield, England, but up to 1859 the company made a loss. By the time the patent ran out in 1870 he had made more than 1 million pounds sterling. Steel is still produced using technology based upon the Bessemer Process of blowing air through molten pig iron to oxidise the material and separate impurities.
How is steel made?
Steel is made via two basic routes - from raw materials - iron ore, limestone and coke by the blast furnace and basic oxygen furnace route or from scrap via the electric arc furnace (EAF) method. The raw material approach is known as the integrated route and about 60% of steel produced today is made by this method. The second technique is much easier and faster since it only requires scrap steel. Recycled steel is introduced into a furnace and re-melted along with some other additions to produce the end product. About 34% of steel produced in 2003 was produced via the EAF route.
What is a flat steel product?
A flat steel product is a plate product or a (hot or cold) rolled strip product. Typically steel is rolled between sets of rollers to produce the final thickness. Plate products vary in dimensions from 10 mm to 200 mm and thin flat rolled products from 1 mm to 10 mm. Plate products are used for ship building, construction, large diameter welded pipes and boiler applications. Thin flat products find end use applications in automotive body panels, domestic 'white goods' products, 'tin cans' and whole host of other products from office furniture to heart pacemakers.
What is a long steel product?
A long product is a rod, a bar or a section - typical rod products are the reinforcing rods for concrete, engineering products, gears, tools etc. are typical of bar products and sections are the large rolled steel joists (RSJ) that are used in building construction projects. Wire-drawn products and seamless pipes are also part of the long products group.
What is a mini-mill?
A mini-mill is a molten steel producing process that feeds scrap steel into an electric arc furnace to re-process the material into finished steel for new applications. (See 'How is steel made?' above).
Where is steel produced?
Steel is produced in more than 50 countries worldwide and on every continent except Antarctica.
How much steel is produced worldwide?
In 2003, more than 960 million metric tonnes of steel was produced worldwide. The list outlined below provides the production statistics for a selection of other materials.
- Steel: 960 million metric tonnes (2003)
- Aluminium: 21.9 million metric tonnes (2002)
- Copper: 14.9 million metric tonnes (2002)
- Gold: 2,600 metric tonnes (2003)
- Timber: 300 million m³ (2001)
Who makes the most steel?
In 2003, China produced more than 220 million tons of
crude steel making it the first country to exceed 200
million tons of crude steel in a year.
Who uses the most steel?
In 2002, China consumed 244 million tons of steel.
Who is the biggest steel
company?
Until the end of 2004 the Luxembourg based company Arcelor
produced the most steel. with a production of almost
43 million tons in 2003. Arcelor was created by a merger
in February 2002 of Aceralia, based in Spain, Arbed,
based in Luxembourg and Usinor, based in France. In
October 2004 the formation of Mittal Steel bringing
together Ispat/LNM and ISG will become the worldÍs largest
steelmaking company. Based on 2003 crude steel production
Mittal would have produced around 49 million tons.
Who exports the most steel?
In 2002, Japan exported more than 35.2 million tons
of steel, a gain for the sixth consecutive year. By
country, exports to South Korea, the largest single
user of Japanese steel, totalled 9.20 million tons,
a record high volume, with increases in flat-rolled
products such as hot-rolled wide strips and plates.
By product type, crude steel represented 70.9% of all
Japanese steel exports in 2002 with special steel accounting
for 14.1%.
Who imports the most steel?
In 2002, the United States imported more than 30.2 million
tons of steel and China imported 29.2 million tons of
steel. More than 20% of the world's steel is produced
in China and the country consumes more than one fifth
of the world's steel production.
How much does steel cost?
In 2003 the average cost of steel was between $250 -
350 per ton depending upon the specific product. When
Henry Bessemer invented his process the cost was about
$30 per ton. It is interesting to note that while steel
has undergone about a 10 fold increase in price over
150 years, a loaf of bread has had about a 20 fold increase
in the same period and a pint of beer has increased
about 25 fold. The progress in technology, improved
quality and significantly reduced environmental footprint
have all contributed to the advancement of steel over
the past 150 years.
Can you recycle steel?
Of the 960 million tons of steel produced in 2003, more
than 60% of it was produced from recycled steel. Steel
is the world's most recycled material; indeed one of
the two major steel production techniques uses exclusively
100% recycled steel. The additional good news is that
the properties of steel remain unchanged no matter how
many times the steel is recycled. The steel in your
car body might have been a panel from a washing machine
in a previous life and even that panel might have been
a drink can! In 2001 in North America more than 14.5
millions cars were recycled which is 27 cars per minute!
In the United Kingdom 2.5 million refrigerators are
replaced annually. In 2002 in South Africa, 64% of all
beverage cans were recycled. The country consumes about
3 billion cans annually!
What about environmental
protection and sustainability?
Steel is a material, which is very friendly to the environment.
This is not only because it is completely recyclable,
but also possesses great durability, and compared to
other materials, requires relatively low amounts of
energy in its production. Innovative lightweight construction,
such as in automobile and rail vehicle construction
help to save energy and resources, as well. The steel
industry has made immense efforts to limit environmental
pollution in the last decades. This made it possible
to decrease energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions
by one-half of what it was in the 60's, and dust emissions
have been reduced by even more! What's more: A wind
or solar power plant cannot even exist without steel.
Why does steel rust?
Many elements and materials go through chemical reactions
with other elements. When steel comes into contact with
water and oxygen there is a chemical reaction and the
steel begins to change to its original form - iron oxide.
In most modern steel applications this problem is easily
overcome by coating. Paint is used in automobiles, enamel
is used in refrigerators and other domestic appliances
and in other cases elements such as nickel and chromium
are added to make stainless steel, which can help prevent
rust.
How many different types
of steel are available?
Steel is not a single product. There are currently more
than 3,500 different grades of steel with many different
properties - physical, chemical, environmental, 75%
of which have been developed in the last 20 years. If
the Eiffel Tower were to be rebuilt today the engineers
would only need one-third of the amount of steel, modern
cars have new steels with higher strength reducing the
overall shell weight by 25%.
from: Worldsteel.org
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