ISSN 2594-5300
40º Seminário de Aciaria — vol. 40, num.40 (2009)
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Abstract
The prospects for the world economy for the next five years seem to still be characterized by high demand of the last years, obviously with the exception of Europe. New political developments in the Far East, especially in China and India, favour industrial branches which are fundamental for the national economy, also including the steel industry. The consumption of stainless steel has been growing for the past 5 years at 6% p.a. worldwide. In the year 2008 it was supposed to achieve the level of 30.1 million tonnes. Due to the worldwide economic crisis this figure will be not reached. Preliminary figures released by the International Stainless Steel Forum (last update 15.09.2008) indicate a dramatic drop in production. The production of crude stainless steel has decreased in the first half of 2008 by 1.8% compared to the same period of 2007. The general strategy of all major steel producers is reduction or postponing of production and investments. One scenario of further stainless steel production seems to be highly probable: Due to the reduction of production, the scrap availability on the market will temporarily grow but after the economic recovery it will take on a dramatic downward trend. The scrap supply will not be able to keep up with the evolution of steel production. New technologies and new material sources are required when new significant progress in world production has to be achieved. Steel scrap, chromium and nickel as base materials for stainless steel production are suffering strong market restrictions expressed in the form of prices. The same applies to the availability of electrical energy and some process gases. There is a clear trend in the use of hot metal containing chromium and alloys as a replacement for scrap. The electrical energy is able to be substituted by the chemical-free energy of metallurgical reactions. It also has to be stated that ferrochromium and ferronickel charging takes place more and more frequently in liquid form. Based on recent worldwide tendencies, stainless steel production is determined by the application of new iron sources such as hot metal, DRI and of technologies with equipment allowing continuous or semi-continuous metal treatment. BF (blast furnace), SAF (submerged arc furnace) and CONARC SSt are the likely technologies of the next decade. This paper presents an overview of possibilities and new trends in stainless steelmaking technologies.
The prospects for the world economy for the next five years seem to still be characterized by high demand of the last years, obviously with the exception of Europe. New political developments in the Far East, especially in China and India, favour industrial branches which are fundamental for the national economy, also including the steel industry. The consumption of stainless steel has been growing for the past 5 years at 6% p.a. worldwide. In the year 2008 it was supposed to achieve the level of 30.1 million tonnes. Due to the worldwide economic crisis this figure will be not reached. Preliminary figures released by the International Stainless Steel Forum (last update 15.09.2008) indicate a dramatic drop in production. The production of crude stainless steel has decreased in the first half of 2008 by 1.8% compared to the same period of 2007. The general strategy of all major steel producers is reduction or postponing of production and investments. One scenario of further stainless steel production seems to be highly probable: Due to the reduction of production, the scrap availability on the market will temporarily grow but after the economic recovery it will take on a dramatic downward trend. The scrap supply will not be able to keep up with the evolution of steel production. New technologies and new material sources are required when new significant progress in world production has to be achieved. Steel scrap, chromium and nickel as base materials for stainless steel production are suffering strong market restrictions expressed in the form of prices. The same applies to the availability of electrical energy and some process gases. There is a clear trend in the use of hot metal containing chromium and alloys as a replacement for scrap. The electrical energy is able to be substituted by the chemical-free energy of metallurgical reactions. It also has to be stated that ferrochromium and ferronickel charging takes place more and more frequently in liquid form. Based on recent worldwide tendencies, stainless steel production is determined by the application of new iron sources such as hot metal, DRI and of technologies with equipment allowing continuous or semi-continuous metal treatment. BF (blast furnace), SAF (submerged arc furnace) and CONARC SSt are the likely technologies of the next decade. This paper presents an overview of possibilities and new trends in stainless steelmaking technologies.
Keywords
Stainless; TECHNOLOGY
Stainless; TECHNOLOGY
How to refer
Reichel, J.;
Rose, L..
NEW CONCEPTS IN STAINLESS STEEL TECHNOLOGY
,
p. 302-312.
In: 40º Seminário de Aciaria,
São Paulo,
2009.
ISSN: 2594-5300
, DOI 10.5151/2594-5300-0031
