The steel industry has been a cornerstone of the world economy for almost 4,000 years. Its importance has risen dramatically throughout the 20th century, as industrialization took off and countries needed to rebuild after devastating wars. Technological advancements in the early to mid 1900’s allowed for increased production capacity, while domestic and international demand grew.
A modern iron-and-steel mill uses a complex series of machines to take raw materials and turn them into finished products, such as bars, sheet, rail, H or I beams, and rods. The first step is to convert the raw material to molten iron, known as pig iron. This is done by heating it in a blast furnace to a temperature of about 1500-1600 degrees Celsius. Air is injected into the furnace and mixed with the pig iron to remove impurities such as oxides, which are then separated out in a process called smelting.
To create a finished product, the molten iron is rolled in to sheets or bars. These are then cut to various shapes and sizes, and processed further in a variety of ways to make them usable. Some of the most common uses of these products include construction, transportation, and energy generation.
Steel producers have implemented numerous commitments, measures and innovations to improve their process efficiency. As a result, they have reduced their energy intensity by about 30% since 1995. However, these regional technical improvements are likely insufficient to reduce the industry’s GHG emissions sufficiently at a global level, especially with increased steel production from emerging countries.
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