Steel Times International November December 2018

MINIMILLS

VIEWPOINT

INDUSTRY 4.0

STEELMAKING

A good year for US carbon steel bar products, says Myra Pinkham

Lots of new technology doesn’t always point to a dynamic industry

Can the steel industry make the most of the Industrial Internet of Things?

The importance of slag detection systems at the BOF and caster

www.steeltimesint.com November/December 2018 - Vol.42 No8

STEEL TIMES INTERNATIONAL – November/December 2018 – Vol.42 No8

SPRAY-COOLED

‘UPSIDE AND DOWNSIDE RISKS’ – WORLDSTEEL’S SHORT-RANGE OUTLOOK STI Cover.indd 1

14/11/2018 10:35:21

DIGITALIZATION In times of rapidly changing markets, you want to optimize your plants to stay ahead. We listen. We learn. We deliver: our automation and Digitalization specialists will help you implement learning mills that will boost efficiency, lower operating costs, and increase productivity. Whatever you envision, we will make it happen for you.

Leading partner in the world of metals

www.sms-group.com

Digitalisierung_A4_e.indd 1

15.09.17 09:39

CONTENTS - NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2018

MINIMILLS

VIEWPOINT

INDUSTRY 4.0

STEELMAKING

A good year for US carbon steel bar products, says Myra Pinkham

Lots of new technology doesn’t always point to a dynamic industry

Can the steel industry make the most of the Industrial Internet of Things?

The importance of slag detection systems at the BOF and caster

Picture courtesy of Systems Spray-Cooled

www.steeltimesint.com November/December 2018 - Vol.42 No8

STEEL TIMES INTERNATIONAL – November/December 2018 – Vol.42 No8

Commissioning of the first SprayCooled™ EAF Roof in the Nordic Region at Ovako Hofors, Sweden.

SPRAY-COOLED

‘UPSIDE AND DOWNSIDE RISKS’ – WORLDSTEEL’S SHORT-RANGE OUTLOOK

EDITORIAL Editor Matthew Moggridge Tel: +44 (0) 1737 855151 matthewmoggridge@quartzltd.com Consultant Editor Dr. Tim Smith PhD, CEng, MIM Production Editor Annie Baker Advertisement Production Martin Lawrence SALES International Sales Manager Paul Rossage paulrossage@quartzltd.com Tel: +44 (0) 1737 855116 Sales Director Ken Clark kenclark@quartzltd.com Tel: +44 (0) 1737 855117 Managing Director Steve Diprose stevediprose@quartzltd.com Tel: +44 (0) 1737 855164 Chief Executive Officer Paul Michael SUBSCRIPTION Elizabeth Barford Tel +44 (0) 1737 855028 Fax +44 (0) 1737 855034 Email subscriptions@quartzltd.com

2 Leader

By Matthew Moggridge, editor, Steel Times International.

4 News Industry news, astounding facts and figures and diary dates.

9 Innovations The latest contracts and new products, plus a round-up of steel news from around the world.

12 Innovations - Handling Nucor’s emergency crane brakes.

14 USA update Prices up and pants on fire as Donald Trump claims he has saved the steel industry.

16 Latin America update ArcelorMittal’s new investments.

1

18 World Steel Association General Assembly Short-range outlook points to upside and downside risks 25 IIoT applications Asset health and the Internet of Things.

32 Viewpoint How tech catalyses disruptive change.

38 Minimills A good year for US carbon steel bar.

42 Steelmaking Slag detection in steelmaking.

46 Perspectives: Thermo Fisher Scientific “China is our single largest market.”

48 History Nasmyth’s super tool.

38

Steel Times International is published eight times a year and is available on subscription. Annual subscription: UK £195.00 Other countries: £270.00 2 years subscription: UK £350.00 Other countries: £485.00 ) Single copy (inc postage): £45.00 Email: steel@quartzltd.com Published by: Quartz Business Media Ltd, Quartz House, 20 Clarendon Road, Redhill, Surrey, RH1 1QX, England.

Tel: +44 (0)1737 855000 Fax: +44 (0)1737 855034 www.steeltimesint.com Steel Times International (USPS No: 020-958) is published monthly except Feb, May, July, Dec by Quartz Business Media Ltd and distributed in the US by DSW, 75 Aberdeen 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 17318-0437.

18

Printed in England by: Pensord, Tram Road, Pontlanfraith, Blackwood, Gwent NP12 2YA, UK ©Quartz Business Media Ltd 2018

ISSN0143-7798

www.steeltimesint.com

Contents.indd 1

November/December 2018

14/11/2018 14:15:20

2

LEADER

Understanding the company culture will save lives

Matthew Moggridge Editor matthewmoggridge@quartzltd.com

November/December 2018

Leader.indd 1

After flying from London to Tokyo, I found it amazing, after glancing at a map once I was back on terra firma, just how far away the Japanese capital was from Blighty.

Flying doesn’t particularly bother me; I put my trust in the technology and the physics and look forward to the in-flight meal. In fact, I’m quite happy to eat my fellow passengers’ chicken dinners if they’re happy to offload them.

These days I consider myself a ‘frequent flyer,’ but that doesn’t mean I’m happy when the seat belt sign suggests turbulence, however much the crew tries to persuade me that it’s perfectly safe.

It’s even more irksome when everybody around me carries on reading as if nothing is wrong. I grip hard to the seat and wonder when it will all end.

By and large, however, flight safety is pretty much guaranteed, although I don’t subscribe to the view that, statistically, I’m safer in the air than in a car.

I was in Tokyo to attend the World Steel General Assembly – see page 18 for details of worldsteel’s short range outlook. For me, one of the best presentations at this year’s conference was given by Jim How of Safety Solutions, a man with a

passing resemblance to Harrison Ford, who recently had a close call while flying his light aircraft into John Wayne airport in Orange County, USA. Safety was clearly not on his agenda that day, although Mr Ford did land safely.

When it comes to safety in a steel plant, things are a little more unpredictable.

How says that steelmakers need to improve their thinking. He argues that while injury rate is the number one measure of safety performance, what we measure can mislead us. That reducing the frequency of incidents prevents serious and fatal injuries and illnesses is ‘one risky myth’, he said. The key to accident prevention, says How, is to get a grip on the company culture in order to obtain critical information: ‘the workers have it and they don’t have to give it to you,’ he told delegates. Culture influences whether the workers will provide the information.

Will they be blamed? How will the steel company respond if issues are raised? It all influences whether the workers will tell it like it is. For How, it’s all about trying to understand the context of what’s going on: “You can punish or learn, but you can’t do both,” he said.

www.steeltimesint.com

15/11/2018 09:22:57

PIONEERS AT HEART

Experience matters. We believe imagination matters too. Curious minds question everything to find groundbreaking solutions. There is still so much to discover. So many great opportunities.

We love the heat and we love the cold. We love the glow and we love the dust. We love the quantum leaps and the small steps. We love to innovate and we love to be challenged. We love metals and we will change the way you produce it.

We are pioneers at heart.

contact@primetals.com

AD-Pioneers-at-Heart-297x210-EN.indd 1

11.04.2018 07:07:51

4

NEWS ROUND-UP

Steel News Monthly Summary • The Financial Times announced that ArcelorMittal and Numetal have both been cleared to bid for Essar Steel and must submit new bids for the company. ArcelorMittal’s interest in Essar Steel is linked to Essar’s Hazira plant on India’s west coast. According to the newspaper, ‘Lakshmi Mittal has struggled to secure a meaningful presence in the land of his birth’.

Source: Financial Times, 4 October 2018.

• Gerdau, the largest recycler in Latin America and a leading producer of long steel, has completed the sale to US-based Commercial Metals Company (CMC) of four rebar mills and rebar fabrication locations.

The sale includes mills in Jacksonville, FL; Knoxville, TN; Rancho Cucamonga, CA; and Sayreville, NJ; as well as all of Gerdau’s US rebar fabrication facilities.

Source: Gerdau, 5th November 2018.

• The US Department of Commerce has lowered preliminary tariffs on coldrolled steel plates, giving hope to South Korean steelmakers looking to regain access to a key export market.

Tariffs have been slashed from 59.7% to just 4.51%.

That word ‘preliminary’ is key here as the final ruling is expected by April 2019.

Source: PulseNews.co.kr, 7 October 2018.

• According to the Economic Times, the Deming Application Prize is an annual quality award presented by the Union of Japanese Scientists and Engineers (JUSE) to companies that have achieved ‘distinctive performance benchmarks’ through the application of TQM. Source: Economic Times, 3 October 2018

• Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corporation announced that it will be changing its name on 1 April 2019 to Nippon Steel Corporation (Nippon Steel).

Source: Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corporation, 4 October 2018

• A 12Mt steel plant is to be built by Indian steelmaker JSW in the coastal area of Odisha. It will be built on a site originally earmarked for a development by South Korean producer POSCO. Phase one of the project will involve the construction of a 5Mt capacity blast furnace. A senior JSW executive said the company was committed to the new steel plant.

Source: Business Standard, 8 October 2018

• JSW Steel has been awarded the Deming Prize for Excellence in Total Quality Management for its Vijayanagar Works in the South Indian state of Karnataka. Source: Economic Times, 3 Oct 2018.

• ArcelorMittal Dofasco, like many other manufacturing companies around the world, is experiencing the effects of what is known as the ‘demographic time bomb’.

The company needs to employ new people as the ‘baby boomer’ generation retires. With this in mind the steelmaker set aside 27 October for a jobs fair of its own in Hamilton, Ontario, with a view to attracting younger people into the profession.

Source: The Hamilton Spectator, 25 October 2018

November/December 2018

Industry news.indd 3

• British-owned Liberty, part of Sanjeev Gupta’s GFG Alliance, announced a conditional agreement to buy four European steel plants from ArcelorMittal at Galati in Romania and Ostrava in the Czech Republic, along with rolling mills at Skopje in Macedonia and Piombino in Italy. The plants collectively employ more than 12,500 people and will take Liberty’s total rolling capacity to over 15Mt/yr.

Source: Liberty, 12 October 2018 www.steeltimesint.com

13/11/2018 14:32:57

NEWS ROUND-UP

• Despite claiming (in September 2018) that a planned streamlining operation would not mean job losses, it now transpires that a total of 13 jobs are likely to go if British Steel goes ahead with plans to close it’s Metal Centre at Brandon in East Anglia, UK. Plans to close a facility at Hull will bring likely job losses to 19, British Steel claims.

Source: Eastern Daily Press, 2 November 2018.

• Robert Watkins of Porter, Indiana, USA, has been sentenced to 15 months in a federal prison after pleading guilty to three counts of interstate transportation of stolen property. The property in question was a metal alloy known as Ferro Columbium and it was taken from ArcelorMittal’s Burns Harbour facility.

Watkins was also ordered to pay $1,291,030, which equates to the value of the goods stolen, according to the US Attorney’s office. On three occasions, the stolen goods were transported across state lines for sale in Ohio.

Source: Chesterton Tribune, 31 October 2018

• A report by Bloomberg claims that US President Donald Trump believes that the US steel industry was dead before he took office. Trump claims that former US president, Barack Obama, had ‘shut down’ the steel industry. Bloomberg’s Joe Deaux and Toluse Olorunnipa write that both claims were untrue, claiming that Nucor and Steel Dynamics were ‘two of the healthiest commodity companies in the world before Trump took office and imposed 25% tariffs on foreign steel imports’.

Source: Bloomberg, 1 November 2018.

5

• Industry observers are expecting a price war in India if, as seems likely, ArcelorMittal bags Essar Steel and ups the optimal capacity of the company’s Hazira plant from 50-55% to 80%. Analysts also believe that ArcelorMittal could scale up the Hazira plant from its current 10Mt/yr to 18Mt/yr.

Source: DNAIndia.com, 25 October 2018

• A rail freight terminal in the West Midlands region of the UK has received a £6 million extension and re-opened for business on 24 October.

DB Cargo UK has described the new multi-million pound extension as ‘Brexit busting’.

ArcelorMittal, Tata Steel, SSAB and other leading steelmakers use the terminal, which handles imported steel from countries such as the Netherlands and Sweden and is now capable of storing up to 48kt of steel or 3,324 coils.

Source: Railnews, 24 October 2018 • Steel costs more in the USA than anywhere else in the world, claims Joe Hinrichs, Ford Motor Company’s president of global operations. He blames Donald Trump’s tariffs.

Ford CEO Jim Hackett has already commented that Trump’s steel and aluminium tariffs were projected to cost Ford US$1billion.

Source: The Detroit News, 23 October 2018

• Tata Steel has inaugurated its Jalahari Stream Project at Khondbond, Keonjhar district of Odisha, India.

Jalahari is a peripheral village of the Khondbond Iron Mine. Worked commenced in July last year and will benefit thousands of households in Jalahari and Jurudi.

The project is all about water conservation and the revival of a natural water source.

Source: Orissa Diary.com, 8 October 2018 • A new semi-continuous billet mill supplied by the German SMS group to the Vietnamese steelmaker Formosa Ha Tinh Steel Corporation has now commenced full commercial production. “SMS group convinced us with its outstanding number of reference mills and the best technological concept,” said Jimmy Chen, Formosa’s head of long product rolling mills.

• Shandong Iron & Steel Rizhao issued a Final Acceptance Certificate to German plant builder SMS Group for a new high capacity hot strip mill, seven months after rolling the first coil. The mill has a maximum annual capacity of 4.8Mt and produces strips with a maximum width of 1,900 millimetres. Final strip thicknesses range between 1.2 and 25.4 millimetres.

Source: SMS Group, 25 October 2018 Source: SMS group, 30 October 2018.

www.steeltimesint.com

Industry news.indd 4

13/11/2018 14:33:07

6 NEWS IN BRIEF Gupta announces port revitalisation Sanjeev Gupta, widely regarded in UK steel circles as the saviour of the domestic steel industry, is once again putting his money where his mouth is and investing heavily in British industry.

Mr Gupta has unveiled a £5 million investment in Bird Port on the River Usk at Newport, South Wales, as part of a wider plan to boost industry in the region. He said that the port, first opened in 1900, would become a ‘vital piece of infrastructure’ underpinning new industrial activity, including steelmaking and green energy generation in the area.

SIMEC, the energy division of Gupta’s GFG Alliance, is behind plans to double the port’s capacity.

JSW’s three-phase turnaround plan JSW has devised a three-phase turnaround plan for Monnet Ispat, an Indian steelmaker and mining business referred to insolvency courts last year for defaulting on loan repayments. The plan includes restarting many of the units at Monnet's Raigarh facility in Chhattisgarh. Ultimately the plan is to expand the operation.

CMI awarded FAC Foshan Chengde New Material Co. has awarded CMI a final acceptance certificate for the pickling process section of its new 500kt/yr cold annealing and pickling line (CAPL) that has been erected at the customer’s site at the Tieshan Port (Seaside) Industrial Park.

The new CAPL is processing austenitic stainless steel grades, such as 200 and 300 series Austenilic Ni-Cr stainless steel, all of which meets not only the domestic (GB), but also international industry specifications (ASTM, TIS, DIN, etc).

The line processes strip gauges between 0.3mm and 3.0mm, at a maximum process speed of 200 m/ min in the pickling section.

SSAB plans big investment The Swedish steelmaker is planning to invest up to US$100 million on its steel operations in Mobile, Alabama. The aim is to increase production capacity for highstrength, value-added steels including quenched and tempered (Q&T) steels while increasing operational efficiency and reducing raw materials costs.

NEWS

Make the most of ‘co-products’

The World Steel Association (worldsteel) has published a position paper on the steel industry’s use of co-products – such as process gases, dusts and sludges, chemicals, emulsion and oils and, of course, slags.

Co-products, claims worldsteel, are valuable materials that have a wide range of uses inside and outside of the steelmaking process.

Dusts and sludges, for example, are used as alloying elements, while slags have a wide range of uses in road construction and cement and fertiliser production. Åsa Ekdahl, head of environment and climate change and secretary of worldsteel’s environment committee, commented: “The steel industry is currently operating at a material efficiency level of around 96%, that is to say only around 4% of outputs from the steelmaking process are not used.”

According to Ekdahl, the steel industry still has some way to go to reach its aim of creating zero waste. “The position paper outlines why this is important and how it might be achieved. What is crucial is that legislation in different markets should first of all clearly differentiate co-products from waste and then encourage their use to save energy and virgin raw materials,” Ekdahl added.

Slags, dust and sludge are the main solid co-products produced during iron and crude steel pro-

duction. On average, the production of one tonne of steel results in around 200kg of co-products for the electric arc furnace (EAF) route and 400g for the blast furnace-basic oxygen furnace (BF-BOF) route.

Worldsteel’s position paper highlights some of the common uses of steel industry co-products, explaining how blast furnace slag is a good substitute for clinker in cement making and how steelmaking slag is perfect for aggregates in road construction and soil improvement. Process gases are used in heat and electricity production while emulsions from mills and used oil can be used as reducing agents in blast furnaces or in coke plants.

“In all cases, using a steel industry co-product as a substitute for an equivalent product will improve resource efficiency and contribute to the circular economy,” says worldsteel.

The use of steelmaking co-products, says worldsteel, will reduce the energy and emissions required to make equivalent products.

“Their use should, therefore, be given preferential treatment, or at least be encouraged,” worldsteel advises.

There should also be international/regional quality standards, says worldsteel, and legislation should, in the best case, ‘give precedence to the use of co-products or should at least avoid stricter requirements for their use’.

• Chinese steelmaker Masteel, based in Anhui Province, produced 19.7Mt of steel in 2017.

Source: Primetals.

• US residential construction is expected to increase by 4.7% in 2018 and by another 4% in 2019.

Source: Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers

• BOF slag is used for road surfacing as it increases skid resistance and provides a high level of strength compared to natural rocks (like basalt) making it an ideal aggregate for road construction.

For more global steel news, log on to our news website, www.steeltimesint.com

November/December 2018

Industry news.indd 1

13/11/2018 14:32:24

FACTS AND FIGURES

DIARY OF EVENTS

Astounding Facts and Figures...

• The size of the domestic steel industry in India is around 125Mt, with major players having capacity of around 18Mt. Most of the country’s ‘significant domestic firms’ are in the process of expanding their capacity to over 20Mt.

• Steel has been processed at Tata Steel’s Shotton facility for over 120 years.

Source: Tata Steel Europe.

7

December 2018

• Cleveland Cliffs Inc is the only iron ore producer in the USA and it already feeds many of the biggest integrated steelmakers in the country.

Source: Bloomberg.

12-14: The 9th International Scientific and Practical Conference Location: Moscow, Russia.

Organised by The National University of Science and Technology (MISIS).

This year's event coincides with the 100th anniversary of the Moscow Mining Academy and the Moscow Iron and Steel Institute.

Further information, log on to www.misis.ru

January 2019

• Replacing Portland cement with slag cement in concrete can save up to 59% of the embodied CO2 emissions and 42% of the embodied energy required to manufacture concrete and its constituent materials.

Source: worldsteel

• Iron is the fourth most common element in the Earth’s crust after oxygen (46%), silicon (28%), and aluminium (8%).

Source: worldsteel.

• Tar is a cokemaking coproduct that is used as a seal coating material in the construction sector and to produce paints and synthetic dyes. As a medication, tar can be further processed and used in applications such as soap and shampoo to treat dandruff and skin conditions like psoriasis.

Source: worldsteel

• US steelmaker profits are currently the highest they have been since May 2008.

Source: Metal Bulletin Research

• The company formed by the merger between ThyssenKrupp and Tata Steel will be called ThyssenKrupp Tata Steel. If the European Commission permits the merger, the new business will be Europe’s second biggest steelmaker after ArcelorMittal.

It will have annual revenues of roughly £13 billion and 48,000 employees across 34 sites, producing about 21Mt/ yr of steel.

Source: BBC.

• An electric arc furnace (or EAF) can be charged with 100% steel scrap. A basic oxygen furnace (or BOF) can be charged with as much as 30% scrap.

Source: worldsteel.

22: India 2019 Location: Mumbai Exhibition Centre, Mumbai, India.

Organised by the Ministry of Steel, Government of India and FICCI. This is the 4th International Exhibition and Conference and it is a joint initiative taken by the Ministry of Steel, Government of India, and the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) Further information, log on to www.indiasteelexpo.in

February 2019 12 24: Mexican Steel Forum Location: Sheraton Ambassador Hotel, Monterrey, Mexico. Organised by AMM. This is the 4th International Exhibition and Conference and it is a joint initiative taken by the Ministry of Steel, Government of India, and the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) Further information, log on to www.amm.com 26: 2nd Postgraduate Research Symposium on Ferrous Metallurgy Armourer's Hall, London, UK. Organised by the Materials Processing Institute.

Particularly relevant for doctoral students, universities, academics, researchers and industries involved in materials, metals and process improvement.

Further information, email academy@mpiuk.com

November/December 2018

Industry news.indd 2

13/11/2018 14:32:45

9

INNOVATIONS

Masteel’s modernised reverse cold mill gets to work A reverse cold mill recently modernised by Primetals for the Chinese steelmaker Magang (Group) Holding Company – aka Masteel – produced its first coil in August.

The mill in question represents the first upgrade to a Hyper Universal Crown (UC) mill worldwide.

Hyper UC mills employ smaller diameter work rolls, thus reducing rolling loads, which allows for the production of hard and thinner materials with improved quality, claims Primetals. They also help steelmakers save on investment and maintenance costs, according to the company.

From Masteel’s perspective, the mill upgrade means that the company can meet growing demand for electrical steels.

Masteel is based in China´s Anhui Province and produced 19.7Mt of steel in 2017. The comwww.steeltimesint.com

innovations november.indd 1

pany’s iron and steel business is engaged mainly in ferrous metal smelting, rolling and processing as well as product sales and support services.

The company owns and runs state-of-the-art production lines for thin strip cold-rolling and thin strip hot-rolling, strip hot-galvanising, strip colour coating, silicon steel, H-beam, high-quality wire and rod and train wheel.

From Primetals Technologies´ perspective, the main scope of supply for the mill upgrade included the project block, mill rolls, roll chocks, drive spindle and drive gear box. Additionally, the company was responsible for the supervision of erection and commissioning.

The upgraded mill processes silicon steel grades with product thicknesses between 0.3mm and 0.65mm in a width range of 900mm to 1,280 mm.

The Hyper UC-mill was recently developed by Primetals Technologies to achieve high performances of strip gauge and flatness control for high strength steel (HSS) rolling. This technology is also applicable for rolling high grades of nongrain oriented silicon steel and thin products.

The technology is based on an optimised roll diameter combination (small work, intermediate and back-up rolls), a “work roll driven system” to achieve high flatness controllability, and the development of a high strength small diameter spindle to drive the work roll.

In certain countries, the term ‘HYPER UC-MILL’ is a registered trademark of Primetals Technologies.

For further information, log on to www.primetals.com November/December 2018

15/11/2018 09:37:09

10

INNOVATIONS

Spanish steelmaker Sidenor Aceros Especiales, SL has issued the final acceptance certificate (FAC) to SMS group for its upgraded bar mill in Basauri, Spain.

According to SMS Group, the upgrade was to ensure more effective rolling operations, increasing the initial pass section, raising rolling speeds, and improving material properties.

The German plant builder was responsible for all process facilities, the automation system, and erection and commissioning.

The upgrade project involved replacing the existing three-high roughing stand with a six-stand continuous roughing mill with compact stands (CS) in V-H arrangement. A new flying crop shear and two additional compact stands in an H-V arrangement were installed upstream of the current eleven-stand continuous finishing mill. A further flying shear, installed in the exit section of the bar mill, enables Sidenor to cut both larger cross-sections and smaller sections at speeds of up to 10 metres per second. Static, multi-strand entry and exit guides, and in some cases roller entry guides, are used to guide the rolling stock.

The upgrade included the installation of a new walking beam furnace and related entry and exit equipment, which will allow for higher capacity levels thanks to its modular design. The exit side of the furnace is equipped with a high-pressure water-descaling unit, and the furnace is equipped

Spanish steelmaker signs FAC to SMS with a SMSPrometheus® level 2 automation system, which is claimed to be ideal for setting heating parameters according to the wide range of steel grades to be rolled. The use of SMS ZeroFlame burners minimise pollutant emissions, says SMS. At its Basauri plant, Sidenor produces round bars in the 29mm to 100mm diameter range

Hofors EAF roof ‘performing well’ A Systems Spray-Cooled roof installed on an electric arc furnace (EAF) at the Swedish steelmaker Ovako’s bar, billet, tube and rings facility in Hofors, Sweden, is said to be performing well.

The installation, claims Systems Spray-Cooled, is the first roof in action in the Nordic region.

The company received the contract to modernise (and increase safety) at Ovako’s Hofors November/December 2018

innovations november.indd 2

meltshop in June, 2017. Originally scheduled for Christmas 2017, the commissioning was postponed until the summer of this year due to a very successful winter season for the Swedish steel manufacturer.

The roof was successfully commissioned and is performing well, with the previously mentioned safety advantages having already been proven

from high-grade carbon steels, low and high-alloy quality steels and tool steels, roller bearing steels and stainless grades used in the automotive oil and gas and machine and plant engineering sectors.

For further information, log on to www.sms-group.com

during operation. The roof was installed with an AMI-GE electrode regulation system to increase the energy input to the furnace and boost steel production with less maintenance disruptions.

Ovako was first exposed to Spray-Cooled technology at a European electric steelmaking conference in Italy and has since weighed the new technology against its current pressurised tubular roofs. According to Systems Spray-Cooled, Ovako has been ‘highly enthusiastic’ about the technology and saw clear advantages in terms of maintenance and safety.

Systems Spray-Cooled equipment operates at atmospheric pressure – meaning that the cooling water is not pumped across the area to be cooled and the potential for high pressure, high volume water leaks is eliminated.

The new roof was engineered to integrate into Ovako’s current furnace set-up, as well as ‘future-proofed’ to integrate with planned upgrades.

To alleviate concerns about potential piping issues, new piping was engineered using state-ofthe-art 3D laser scans of the current furnace and surrounding mill to aid in design and overcome outdated drawings. This, claims Systems SprayCooled, is an unconventional cantilever-lift roof fabricated in Germany.

The Hofors mill has its roots in the mid-16th century and is today Ovako’s hub, with production in steel and billet rolling mills and in tube and ring mills.

For further information, log on to www.spraycooled.tsg.bz www.steeltimesint.com

15/11/2018 09:37:14

BSE Consulting & Qualification

Learning from one of the World’s leading MiniMills!

The operational excellence of Badische Stahlwerke (BSW) – the mini-mill of the Badische Group – is the result of continuous investment and application of the ”Badische Philosophy“: skilled, motivated personnel provided with appropriate tools and assigned clear responsibility within a lean organisation.

For more than 30 years now, Badische Stahl-Engineering (BSE) has been successfully implementing this special mini-mill culture to various steel plants and rolling mills all over the world – with comprehensive know-how contracts, classic seminars as well as individual training and consulting services.

Contact us – we can help you to optimise YOUR productivity and efficiency by smart adaptation of selected methods and proven technologies.

Badische Stahl-Engineering GmbH Robert-Koch-Straße 13 D -77694 Kehl/Germany Phone (+49) 78 51/8 77- 0 Fax (+49) 78 51/8 77-133 eMail info@bse-kehl.de www.bse-kehl.de BSE America 1811 Sardis Road North, Suite 210 Charlotte, NC 28270 Phone (704) 553-1582 www.bse-america.com

BSE0368_Anz_MiniMillCulture.indd 1

14.08.17 13:10

Save Argon Costs up to 30 % Quick Pay-off

12 INNOVATIONS: HANDLING

Nucor’s emergency End users of overhead cranes, particularly in the steel sector, have been urged to consider the safety benefits of installing emergency brakes, especially in environments where critical lifts are commonplace.

Nucor Corporation has recently retrofitted cranes at a number of locations – and others have been implored to follow suit.

Electric overhead traveling (EOT) cranes are ubiquitous in steel mills and other industrial facilities, where they can be up to 450 tons or more in capacity and lift ladles of molten metal that are poured into casting machines. Imagine, therefore, the catastrophic scene when, say, a gear shaft should fracture and a load is dropped. The damage to property and inevitable injury, or worse, to personnel is incalculable. It could even lead to plant closure.

BEDA Ladle stirring systems for perfect tightness  Less Argon costs  Heat resistant up to 600°C  Full metallic design, no rubber sealings  Extended lifetime of porous plug  Improved metallurgical efficiency  Increased stirring effect  Life-saving gas tightness

highest quality highest safety BEDA Oxygentechnik Armaturen GmbH

Germany  An der Pönt 59  D-40885 Ratingen Tel. +49 (0) 2102-91 09-0  Fax +49 (0) 2102-177 42 E-Mail: info@beda.com  Internet: www.beda.com Handling Nucor.indd 1

www.steeltimesint.com

14/11/2018 09:13:19

c

crane brakes Pintsch Bubenzer, a manufacturer of high performance disc and drum brakes for steel cranes and other heavy duty applications, is intent on raising awareness of this widespread safety oversight that it said is principally borne out of a lack of education in steel and other end user marketplaces.

Mike Astemborski, regional sales manager at Bubenzer, believes that “less than 10%” of cranes in the steel sector, including new ones, are fitted with emergency brakes in the United States.

Jeff Johnson, crane and mobile lead at Nucor Steel Utah, said: “We have installed Pintsch Bubenzer brakes on our hot metal cranes. This has created redundancy in case of a gear train failure. This is a very cost-efficient solution to provide more safety in our production environment that can be accomplished in a short period of time.”

In simple terms, a motor drives a gearbox that rotates a rope drum during lifting or lowering operations. On the vast majority of the installed population of US overhead cranes, a brake is only connected to the motor, meaning it is beyond the point of failure in many instances. Emergency brakes that could be connected to the winding drum itself can provide an additional safeguard and keep the load securely on the crane hook.

Astemborski said: “Why would anyone be comfortable about making a critical lift, where a crane is moving an expensive and/or dangerous load, without an additional emergency, failsafe brake? A new ladle crane might represent a $7 million investment for a steel mill and we’re talking about a potentially lifesaving addition at a tiny fraction of that cost. It’s not about money; end users are prepared to invest in safety systems, but they need to better understand the risks and products available.”

Astemborski continued: “All too often a major incident leads to an investigation that exposes the lack of an emergency brake – but then it’s too late. We need to continue our outreach campaigns and endeavor to educate steel and other professionals so they specify emergency brakes at the earliest stage of dialogue with a crane manufacturer. Frankly, an OEM is unlikely to propose a cost-adding feature when it could inflate their bid in a competitive tender situation.”

It’s interesting that some end-user marketplaces are more aware than others when it comes to emergency brakes, observes Astemborski. In the ports sector, for example, ship-to-shore cranes, used for loading and unloading containers from ships, are routinely fitted with brakes on both the hoist and boom motions, as standard in most cases.

Nucor’s Johnson concluded: “Pintsch Bubenzer has designed these systems to be a compact unit that needs very little alterations to the existing layout of the hoist and trolley area. I feel that together we have a very good solution that will provide us years of trouble-free service.”

LEADERS IN CUSTOMISED HANDLING SOLUTIONS

For further information, log on to www.pintschbubenzerusa.com

The Pintsch Bubenzer SF emergency brake acts directly on the ladle crane’s drum, eliminating any chance of drivetrain failure causing a dropped load on a critical lift crane such as a hot metal or ladle crane. Typically the brake is mounted next to the motor, allowing for multiple shafts, gears, and bearings to fail between the brake and the drum.

www.steeltimesint.com

Handling Nucor.indd 2

+353 47 80500

combilift.com 14/11/2018 09:13:22

14

USA UPDATE

Prices up and pants on fire Since Section 232 tariffs were introduced, US steel prices have recorded double-digit growth and President Donald Trump is taking all the credit for reviving the US steel industry, claiming it was as ‘dead as a doornail’ before he took charge. Big words, but are they true or just ‘fake news’? Industry observers have raised their collective eye brows, including Steel Times International’s Manik Mehta* ONE consequence of US steel tariffs imposed on Chinese imports, escalating to the much-discussed tit-for-tat sanctions on Chinese and American products, has been a steep double-digit percentage rise in prices of US steel, while prices of imported steel have actually dropped, according to the new American Steel Index Report prepared

by Business Forward Inc, a US-based research company.

According to the research firm, tariffs on imports resulted in an 11% price increase on US-made hot and cold-rolled steel since February, while imported steel prices declined by 4.8% on average.

In its October report, Business Forward maintained that price differences on steel over a seven-month period could have had a disproportionate impact on US manufacturers in highly competitive markets and those manufacturers that export their finished goods.

Jim Doyle, Business Forward’s president, said that these manufacturers are the “ones America needs most”.

While many US iron and steel manufacturers, along with the United Steelworkers Association, welcomed the tariffs which have helped slow down steel dumping in the US, buyers of steel and other raw materials used in the manufacture of a number of products contend that tariffs had raised the costs and were disrupting their supply chains.

But certain steel categories faced strong variations; the report cites the case of US manufactured hot-rolled steel whose prices jumped 13.5% in seven months; prices of cold-rolled steel rose 8.9%. In contrast, the prices of imported steel from China, Germany, Italy, Japan and the UK dropped between 4.6 and 4.9%. “As a result, US manufacturers are paying 15.8% more for

hot- and cold-rolled steel, on average,” the report said.

The American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) announced recently that tariffs had helped slow down steel imports; the US imported some 26.2Mt (net tons) of steel during the first three quarters of 2018, down 12% over the year-earlier period.

However, US steel-consuming industries dependent on imported steel complain that tariffs had led to an increase in metal prices and created supply chain problems.

Trade groups such as the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) have made representations to the Trump administration, asking for a resumption of bilateral trade talks with China and other partners in an attempt to resolve the issue.

NAM president Jay Timmons has pointed out that with every day passing without progress on a rules-based, bilateral trade agreement with China, the potential grew for manufacturing companies and their workers to get hurt, saying no one would win and that “now is the time for talks, not just tariffs.”

While US President Donald Trump took credit for reviving the fortunes of the steel industry, describing it as “dead” before he assumed office, and blaming his predecessor Barack Obama for having “shut it down”, this depiction is not exactly correct.

“The steel industry was dead. It was as dead as a doornail. We weren’t going to have a steel industry in two years,” Trump said during a recent exchange with his top economic advisor, Larry Kudlow, at the White House.

However, US steel companies such as Nucor Corp. and Steel Dynamics Inc., were doing well, enjoying good ratings by experts, even before Trump became

President and before the 25% tariffs were imposed on steel imports. But US Steel Corp., on the other hand, was not in good health until 2015. Even though the company’s balance sheet still has a lot of debt, and is encumbered by plants that need modernisation and by labour issues, the company generates more revenue as prices continue to rise and foreign competitors are held in check by the tariffs.

US Steel is indeed expanding production, partly due to Trump’s tariffs.

During the company’s recent thirdquarter conference call, Nucor’s CEO John Ferriola outlined the company’s spending which will, firstly, be for profitable growth and, secondly, for paying back to shareholders. Nucor has nine projects in the pipeline worth around $2.2 billion, expected to be completed between 2019 and 2021. Besides the rebar mills being set up in Florida and Missouri, which will cut transportation costs for supply to markets which source their requirements from outside these areas, Nucor is also modernising its rolling mill at its Marion facility in Ohio and expanding its Kankakee mill in Illinois. Both projects will enhance the company’s productivity, and increase its competitiveness. Nucor is also working with 50/50 partner JFE in Mexico to build a new mill which will extend the company’s reach beyond the US and will serve the growing auto industry in that country. The mill should start in 2019.

In September, US steel producers made representations to the US Trade Representative (USTR), seeking relief on 132 tariff lines, though these were, mainly, for steelmaking raw materials and chemicals imported by members of the Steel Manufacturers’ Association (SMA) from China. They could have 66 of these

* USA correspondent November/December 2018

USA.indd 1

www.steeltimesint.com

14/11/2018 14:30:33

USA UPDATE

tariffs removed from the final list. The US has removed a total of almost 300 tariff lines from the list; a tariff line can refer to a single product, but sometimes includes more than one.

The industry continues to support the tariffs and the goals pursued by the administration. But “we wanted to inform the US trade representative about the impact these tariffs would have on certain products that are critical for domestic steelmakers,” explained Philip K. Bell, the SMA President.

In contrast, the National Retail Federation, which requested the removal of 1,100 tariff lines, could only get 48 removed, while the Consumer Technology Association, which wanted to have nearly 400 lines removed, could get only 10.

While the tariffs may have benefited the steel and aluminium industries, there are fears that the trade war could unleash a price spiraling in other industries, particularly if Trump carries out his threats to impose a 25% tariff on car imports

www.steeltimesint.com

USA.indd 2

and slap tariffs on more Chinese imports.

Home Depot, Wal-Mart, Coca-Cola, General Motors and other big names have said they would be forced to raise prices if the trade war dragged on for much longer.

Harley-Davidson said Trump’s tariffs would cost it about $48 million in 2018, while Ford claimed they had deprived it of about $1 billion in profits.

The automotive industry faces disruptions along the supply chain. The automotive supply chain is a complex, global network of interdependent businesses ranging from small, family-owned manufacturers based in the US heartland to large publicly traded overseas auto parts companies.The Trump administration’s tariffs made it more expensive to import Chinese-made car parts such as electric motors and display screens widely used in US-built cars. Tariff-related costs are raising expenses and squeezing the profits of big and small auto-industry players, and driving some companies to fight their partners over who pays.

Some 30,000 individual parts can go into

15

making a typical vehicle; car companies on average source from 100s of suppliers for each model line, either buying components directly or contracting them out further down the chain.

The average operating profit margin in the auto parts manufacturing business, the Original Equipment Suppliers’ Association says, is already thin, around 7%, and any extra costs could hit earnings. Car companies, confronted with declining US demand for cars and trucks after recording growth for many years, are also reluctant to pass on costs to car buyers by raising prices.

The Commerce Department has received nearly 50,000 applications from companies seeking exemptions from the tariffs; this is 10 times the volume originally expected.

More than 25,000 of those applications have now been processed, according to the latest information available from the Commerce Department. Half the processed applications have been approved and 20% denied, while the rest were returned to companies for additional information. �

November/December 2018

14/11/2018 14:30:35

16

LATIN AMERICA UPDATE

ArcelorMittal’s new investments Any announcement of new investment in the Brazilian steel industry is a rare event. Between 19952017, total sectorial investment climbed from $1bn in 1995 to $4.5bn in 2009, reverting to $1.3bn in 2016 and even to $0.7bn in 2017. That said, ArcelorMittal has recently unveiled three projects in different plants, an auspicious indication, perhaps, for the coming years, as companies must work in advance in order to seize the best market opportunities. Germano Mendes de Paula* reports

ON 20 June 2018, ArcelorMittal announced that it will invest $33 million to expand steel cord production in Itaúna, Minas Gerais State. The project will be implemented over the next three years, aiming to amplify the nominal capacity of Belgo-Mineira Bekaert (BMB), a partnership between ArcelorMittal and Bekaert, by 35%. In addition to infrastructure, the resources will be used to install a new brass line (brass coating wire), wire drawing and cabling machines.

The Itaúna plant will add more steps to the production process and will become a fully integrated manufacturing entity.

Steel cords are mainly used as a reinforcing structure for car and truck tires.

BMB claims to be the only independent steel cord producer in Latin America and to have a 72% share of the Brazilian market. ArcelorMittal’s investment will make it feasible for the company to reach 85%. Itaúna consumes wire rod produced in ArcelorMittal’s Monlevade mills, also located in Minas Gerais State.

its Tubarão steelworks in Vitória, Espírito do Santo State. The largest proportion of the money will be employed in the construction of the fourth coke oven battery, which will replace the first one, in use since 1983, when the mill started-up. The enterprise will install new equipment in the coking batteries, with greater dust containment efficiency. If it awards the environmental permits in an 18 month-period, the project would be completed as of 2023.

ArcelorMittal has analysed two main options regarding the coke oven batteries.

The reform of the first one will allow 15 years of equipment life and a 30% reduction of fugitive emissions. The construction of the new one will guarantee

50 years of useful life and will reduce emissions by half. Going for the second option will imply additional payments of roughly $40 million.

ArcelorMittal Tubarão will also make improvements to its co-product processing yard by installing a new de-dusting system (bag filter) that attacks fugitive emissions.

It is understood that these investments will not expand its crude steel and hot rolled coil (HRC) production.

New galvanising plant in São Francisco do Sul On 5 August 2018, it was announced that the expansion ArcelorMittal Vega, located

New coke oven battery in Vitória On 13 July 2018, ArcelorMittal disclosed the plan to invest $150 million with the goal to improve the environmental performance of

* Professor in Economics, Federal University of Uberlândia, Brazil.

E-mail: germano@ufu.br November/December 2018

LA.indd 1

13/11/2018 15:25:46

LATIN AMERICA UPDATE

in São Francisco do Sul, Santa Catarina State, will be resumed.

This was on hold since 2011 due to the impact of the global financial crisis and the severe Brazilian economic recession.

Vega is a finishing facility that produces cold rolled coils (CRC), hot dip galvanised (HDG), galvalume and aluminised. The two galvanising lines have a joint 1Mt/yr capacity. Today, 50% of production is for the automotive market and the other half is for the construction and home appliance sectors. Its substrate (HRC) are supplied by ArcelorMittal Tubarão (located 1,200km away) and arrives by barge and vessel.

Vega’s expansion represents an investment of $330 million, for a capacity increase of 700kt/yr and will be completed in 2021. The company’s goal is to fortify its position in the automotive, construction and home appliance sectors by producing high strength and quality steel products.

In reality, the company is forecasting a substantial recovery of Brazilian automotive production, not only serving the domestic market, but also for enlarging exports.

Vega’s expansion project includes an additional third galvanising line combined with a new continuous annealing line. The use of Combline technology (continuous annealing) will enhance Vega’s positioning in the high-strength cold- rolled market and increase the company’s galvanised products offering. On completion, ArcelorMittal Vega will be able to produce up to 2.1Mt/yr.

The new coating line will also make it possible to increase the company’s portfolio of new products, such as Magnelis, a proprietary technology of ArcelorMittal. It is produced on a classic galvanising line, but the molten bath has a unique chemical composition including zinc, aluminium and magnesium. The company claims Magnelis, a metallic coating, ensures optimal surface protection against long-term wear and tear and has become the solar industry’s

17

reference product for ground-mounted structures. ArcelorMittal also considered the option of adding a 100kt/yr pre-paint line on the same industrial site.

Bearing in mind that ArcelorMittal is not investing in the expansion of its Tubarão hot strip mill, the investment in Vega will imply a gradual diminution of HRC exports.

Consequently, the product mix will be enhanced.

Product mix and the environment ArcelorMittal has announced, in just two months, investment in three different Brazilian plants. Two of them (BMB and Vega) deal with the improvement of output mix, by enlarging the fabrication of high quality products. Tubarão, on the other hand, is all about environmental progress.

In all of them, crude steel capacity is maintained, which is quite understandable due to the high idle capacity that the sector is experiencing. The focus on product mix enhancement and environmental performance appear to be the key priorities of Brazilian steel industry investment going forward. �

Automatic Grading Coils

Processes

Visit our website

www.quinlogic.com November/December 2018

LA.indd 2

13/11/2018 15:25:51

18

WORLD STEEL ASSOCIATION GENERAL ASSEMBLY

Upside and

downside risks

Trade tensions, Brexit, the risk of another financial crisis, the rise of populism and the threat of sanctions are enough to make any self-respecting steel producer remain in their hotel room. However, those who found themselves in the Grand Ballroom of Tokyo’s Grand Hyatt hotel, attending this year’s World Steel Association General Assembly, were given plenty to think about, thanks to Emirates Steel’s CEO Saeed Ghumran Al Remeithi and his delivery of worldsteel’s global short-range outlook DESPITE everything that is going on in terms of tariffs, trade tensions and rising protectionism, there appears to be plenty of cautious optimism floating around, certainly in Tokyo at the recent World Steel General Assembly.

Opening proceedings at the opulent Grand Hyatt hotel, the World Steel Association’s director-general, Dr. Edwin Basson, told those present that the global steel industry had grown 8% in terms of turnover, not bad when compared with other industries around the world. Dr. Basson said that the business environment surrounding the steel industry was favourable and that demand for steel was growing – gradually and continually. He said that these were times of huge change in terms of technological innovations, especially within the automotive industry – autonomous vehicles, electric cars – and that the steel industry needed to respond ‘appropriately and rapidly’ and make the most of the latest high tech itself, a specific November/December 2018

Conference report Japan.indd 1

reference to artificial intelligence and the associated technologies of Industry 4.0, or ‘smart manufacturing’.

One of the defining moments of the World Steel General Assembly is the presentation of worldsteel’s global shortrange outlook.

Resilience As chairman of the worldsteel economics committee, Saeed Ghumran Al Remeithi, who is also CEO of Emirates Steel, addressed delegates and journalists and commented: “In 2018, global steel demand continued to show resilience supported by the recovery in investment activities in developed economies and the improved performance of emerging economies.”

Global steel demand will reach 1,657.9Mt in 2018, an increase of 3.9% when compared with 2017, according to the World Steel Association’s (worldsteel) October short-range outlook. In 2019 global steel demand is forecast to grow

1.4% to reach 1,681.2Mt. Demand for steel is expected to remain positive into 2019, Mr Al Remeithi said, growing at 1.4% globally.

There are, however, a number of uncertainties from tensions in the global economic environment.

According to worldsteel, while the strength of steel demand recovery seen in 2017 was carried over to 2018, risks have increased. Normalisation of monetary policies in the USA and the European Union could influence the currencies of emerging economies.

In China, steel demand growth is expected to decelerate due to an absence of stimulus measures. Demand was boosted during H2 2018 by a mini stimulus in real estate and a strong global economy. However, worldsteel argues that continued economic rebalancing efforts and toughening environmental regulations will lead to a deceleration in steel demand towards the end of 2018 and 2019. www.steeltimesint.com

14/11/2018 11:59:04

WORLD STEEL ASSOCIATION GENERAL ASSEMBLY

Downside and upside risks exist for China, with the former coming from ongoing trade frictions with the USA in addition to a decelerating global economy. “However, if the Chinese government decides to use stimulus measures to contain the potential slowdown of the Chinese economy in the face of a deteriorating economic environment, steel demand in 2019 will be boosted,” claims worldsteel.

Moderate growth In the developed world, steel demand remains healthy, but growth will be moderate. Worldsteel estimates that demand will increase by 1% in 2018 and 1.2% in 2019.

Strong consumer spending and business investment in the USA, supported by tax and regulatory changes and fiscal stimulus, led to strong steel demand growth in 2017.

Steel demand growth in 2019 will slow as car manufacturing and construction activity is expected to see modest growth.

The manufacturing sector is expected to perform well thanks to the strength of the machinery and equipment sector, claims worldsteel.

In the European Union, steel demand will continue its broad recovery at a reduced pace. Business confidence is high and investment and construction is continuing its recovery, says worldsteel. The automotive market may see slower growth demand.

While the economic fundamentals of the EU economy remain relatively healthy, according to worldsteel, steel demand in 2019 will show some deceleration over 2017-18 growth and this is due to global trade uncertainty.

In Japan, steel demand will remain stable thanks to supportive factors on investment (record-high corporate earnings, the continuation of monetary easing, demand associated with the Tokyo Olympics and the increasing need for labour-saving investments).

With major steel using sectors struggling, www.steeltimesint.com

Conference report Japan.indd 2

steel demand in Korea will contract further in 2018 with only a minor recovery expected in 2019.

India’s steel demand is expected to revert to a higher growth track, supported by improving investment and infrastructure programmes, but government finances and corporate debt weigh heavily on the outlook.

Slow growth In the ASEAN region, sluggish construction activity and stock adjustments have led to slow growth in steel demand, says worldsteel. However, infrastructure programmes in 2019 and beyond will revive that growth momentum. There are risks, and they are largely related to rising trade tensions between China and the USA along with currency volatilities and political instability.

In the remainder of emerging and developing economies, the recovery has been slow to gain traction, says worldsteel, due to rising uncertainty in domestic and external environments. Structural reforms, financial market vulnerability and potential currency pressures from tensions in the global economy are among the main reasons.

Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) countries are experiencing an upward momentum in steel demand, thanks to reforms and a stronger oil market. The outlook for Iran is less favourable because of sanctions reinstated by the USA. Even with the rise in oil prices, growth in steel demand in Russia is expected to show weak momentum, while in Turkey it is expected to contract this year because of the country’s currency crisis. Government stabilisation measures, however, and a consequent return to the competitiveness of the manufacturing sector will aid recovery in 2019.

In Latin America steel demand is continuing its second year of recovery backed by positive developments in the

19

domestic and global economy. In Brazil, demand continues its stable recovery this year and this is expected to continue into 2019. In Mexico demand has suffered from uncertainties related to the renegotiation of NAFTA and the resultant signing of the USMCA. A slow recovery is expected for Mexico during 2019.

In the emerging economies, steel demand is expected to grow 3.2% and 3.9% in 2018 and 2019 respectively (excluding China).

Steel demand in developing Asia (also excluding China) is expected to increase by 5.9% and 6.8% in 2018 and 2019 respectively.

Construction sector growth in developed economies will moderate after what worldsteel calls a strong recovery momentum in 2017-18 due to a high base and rising interest rates. Conversely, in most developing economies, construction activities will continue to grow, notably in India, ASEAN and MENA. Brazil’s construction sector has yet to recover from its deep crisis.

Rising fuel prices and interest rates in developed economies are softening growth in the automotive sector, but in developing nations automobile demand continues to grow at a healthy pace. The EU and US machinery sector continue to be supported by a strong business investment pace.

Downward pressures are building amid rising uncertainty, concluded Mr Al Remeithi. He said that the global economy seemed to have peaked and that trade tensions and currency volatility characterised the situation at present, which could speed up and sharpen down. Risks, he said, were skewed towards the downside and steel intensity is falling despite stable investment growth.

ASEAN – high growth potential Dr. Nae Hee Han, director of worldsteel’s economic studies and statistics, offered an overview of the ASEAN steel market. Dr Han said that the original purpose of ASEAN November/December 2018

14/11/2018 11:59:14

20

WORLD STEEL ASSOCIATION GENERAL ASSEMBLY

was to promote peace and stability in the region, but these days it was more about economic integration. The ASEAN region accounts for 10% of global trade, 9% of the global population and 6% of world GDP. Since 1998, the ASEAN region has been one of the fastest growing steel markets, said Dr. Han, explaining how Vietnam stands out as the biggest producer of flat products and the largest steel producing and steel using country, taking over from Thailand in 2015 and followed (in third place) by Indonesia.

There is, however, a severe imbalance between steel use and production. The region is highly dependent on steel imports as steel production has been stagnant.

ASEAN steel production is mainly by electric arc furnace (EAF) although blast oxygen furnace (BOF) production is on the rise. The region accounts for 1.6% of global crude steel production, 4.6% of global steel usage and 2.5% of world steel exports, but imports 13.6% of global steel imports.

China is playing an increasing role in the development of the region’s steel capacity.

According to Dr. Han, the ASEAN economies offer high potential for economic growth: there is a young demographic, growth-oriented government policies, improved financial stability, improving infrastructure connectivity and a steady inflow of foreign direct investment (FDI). In fact, where FDI is November/December 2018

Conference report Japan.indd 3

concerned, Vietnam and the Philippines are attracting their fair share of FDI inflows.

Japanese and Korean FDI are geared towards the manufacturing sectors. In Japan the automotive industry is driven

by FDI. Thailand is a mature automotive production hub with an export orientation and Indonesia is an emerging automotive hub with a domestic market orientation.

Malaysia, on the other hand, has a welldeveloped automotive industry focused on domestic brands. According to Dr. Han, the Philippines and Vietnam both have aspiring automotive industries targeting domestic production.

Dr. Han says that ASEAN steel demand will double by 2030 reaching 145Mt and driven largely by the less developed nations.

Construction and, to a lesser extent, the automotive industry, are the key drivers, although shipbuilding in the region has been expanding recently with the Philippines and Vietnam leading the way.

There is also big potential in the residential sector, particularly in low income/high population countries where rising income will drive housing demand.

Meanwhile, in the EU Outside of Tokyo, the European Steel Association (Eurofer) issued its steel market outlook for the EU, claiming that solid fundamentals are being obscured by several threats.

Eurofer claims that the EU steel market has remained on a relatively fast growth track during Q2, supported by ‘healthy economic fundamentals’ and the good operating performance of steel-using sectors. However, imports continued to grow faster than the domestic deliveries of EU steel mills and steel demand growth is levelling out in the EU and other regions over the coming quarters. These and other factors – including persisting excess capacities globally and proliferation of distortionary steel trade actions worldwide – are cause for concern, claims Eurofer.

“Trade tensions could clearly upset the market’s balance, as could slowing demand in other parts of the economy,” said Axel Eggert, director-general of Eurofer.

According to Eurofer, EU28 apparent steel consumption grew 4.4% year-onyear in Q2 2018. “Healthy levels of real steel consumption, in combination with stockbuilding in the steel distribution chain in this period, led to this growth,” Eurofer said.

Domestic deliveries from EU mills to the EU market rose 3.7% during Q2, while third country imports rose 9.8% when compared with the same period of 2017, surpassing already ‘extremely high’ import levels registered in Q1 2018 by almost 5%. The share of imports in EU apparent consumption rose from 23.2% in Q1 to almost 25% in Q2. www.steeltimesint.com

14/11/2018 11:59:20

22

WORLD STEEL ASSOCIATION GENERAL ASSEMBLY

There is great concern, claims Eurofer, about third country exporters pushing extra volumes to the EU market in anticipation of safeguard measures and, says Eurofer, a willingness of buyers to take certain speculative risks.

Ongoing trade frictions However, EU steel market fundamentals are expected ‘to remain supportive to a continued but moderate increase in apparent steel consumption’, says Eurofer.

But ongoing trade frictions with the USA and cooling global demand suggest that external risks will continue to climb, increasing uncertainty and weakening prospects for EU steel users.

Further trade barriers under consideration

by Trump – tariffs on EU automotive exports to the US, for instance – could further escalate the trade dispute and damage steel demand. That said, EU apparent steel consumption is forecast to rise by 2.2% and by a further 1.1% in 2019.

For EU steel-using sectors, Q2 2018’s business conditions were similar to Q1.

All steel using sectors in the EU except for the steel tube industry registered a solid

increase in production activity, according to Eurofer. Going forward, the prospects are looking good. Framework conditions for steel using sectors are expected to remain supportive to continued but slower growth of production activity; and domestic demand, rather than exports, will be the main growth engine over this period.

Rising protectionism and the risk of escalating trade tensions, however, make the global context more uncertain, which might have a negative impact on business confidence and, therefore, investment.

Output in EU steel using sectors is forecast to grow 3.5% in 2018 and 1.8% in 2019.

Slow but steady economic growth is expected for the EU, claims Eurofer, arguing that while investment rebounded strongly from a week Q1 performance, there was a negative contribution of net trade, despite a recovery in exports.

Moderate EU growth Eurofer believes this suggests that a downside risk for exports has begun to materialise, as a consequence of the current slump in international trade and a delayed

impact of the stronger Euro. Economic sentiment is running at an elevated level, well above its long-term average, which is consistent with ongoing and broad-based but more moderate EU growth.

Throughout 2018 and 2019 EU GDP is expected to grow at a lower rate. The greatest risks stem from rising protectionism and a further escalation of trade tensions and currency and stock market volatility in emerging economies.

Eurofer forecasts EU GDP growth of 2% this year and 1.8% in 2019.

Global outlook summary Back in Tokyo and Emirates Steel’s Saeed Ghumran Al Remeithi summarised his presentation on the global short-term outlook for steel by saying that steel intensity was falling despite stable investment growth – and this, he said, could be a long-term trend. He added that downward pressures were building amid rising uncertainty, trade tensions and currency volatility.

The global economy ‘seems to have peaked’ – and the risks are skewed towards the downside. �

INDUSTRY 4.0 AND THE STEELMAKING PROCESS If you want to know what’s happening in the world of ultra-high technology and the production of steel, then look no further than the only steel conference in the world dedicated 100% to Industry 4.0.

ADD THE DATES TO YOUR DIARY NOW

25-26 September 2019 Budapest • Hungary From the publishers of

Organised by:

www.FutureSteelForum.com November/December 2018 FSF_HalfPageAd_185x128mm_PRINT.indd

Conference report Japan.indd 4

1

www.steeltimesint.com 14/11/2018 10:49

14/11/2018 11:59:20

YOUR FORMULATION WILL LOVE IT

Experts in secondary metallurgy INNOVATIVE TECHNOLOGY FOR CALCIUM TREATMENT WITH CALCIUM CARBIDE CORED WIRE • Silicon-free alternative to CaSi • Cost-efficient replacement for CaFe • Highest safety in contrast to Ca-wire COST EFFICIENT NITROGEN ALLOYING WITH CALCIUM CYANAMIDE • High and constant nitrogen content for high precision alloying • Significant cost savings compared to Ferro-alloys • Less temperature and time loss compared to alloying via gas phase

ALZCHEM IS SINGLE REACH REGISTRANT FOR CALCIUM CYANAMIDE AlzChem Trostberg GmbH

Dr.-Albert-Frank-Str. 32 | 83308 Trostberg, Germany | T +49 8621 86-2251 | F +49 86-502251

WWW.ALZCHEM.COM

AIR KNIVES & BATH EQUIPMENT

FOR CONSISTENT STRIP QUALITY CMI INDUSTRY METALS provides unique expertise and know-how in steel processing. As a market leader for galvanizing technology, CMI supplies the benchmark for many of its robust, yet innovative equipment designs for processing lines.

While these lines are designed to apply different coatings, including the very latest AluSi coatings, with the highest surface uniformity, the modular design of CMI’s state-of-the-art AIR KNIVES & BATH EQUIPMENT stand for improved and homogenous strip quality and reduced zinc consumption through most effective strip stabilization and high-performance jet wiping.

www.cmigroupe.com

Re h e a t in g f u r n ace s § Pi c k l i ng § A c i d R eg enera ti o n § C o l d Rol l i ng St r ip Pr oce ssi n g (m e ch a ni c a l , c hem i c a l & ther m a l ) § A utom a ti on DESIGN

|

ENGINEERING

|

COMMISSIONING

|

TECHNICAL

A S S I S TA N C E

&

TRAINING

|

AFTER-SALES

IIoT APPLICATIONS

25

Asset health The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) offers innovative ways of doing things better and utilising existing assets. In a nutshell, it’s all about optimising installed assets with a view to increasing efficiency and availability and, ultimately, predicting future asset behaviour based on historical data.

By Jens Hundrieser* and Steffen Ochsenreither** MANUFACTURING and production, the typical domain of IIoT applications, are to a great extent about optimising installed assets to increase efficiency and availability.

The ultimate goal is to predict asset behaviour in the future based on historical data – often described as predictive maintenance or health. The majority of today’s assets in process automation plants already deliver a lot more data and information than just one single process value. This additional data can range from simply additional process values, to self-diagnosis about the asset’s health or even the prediction on potential occurring problems in the near future based on internally diagnosed device parameters.

Unfortunately, this kind of information is most often locked into the asset itself and can only be retrieved locally at the asset: Process automation plants around today are 5, 10 or even 20 years old and during the planning phase of these plants, asset diagnostics was often not considered.

Over the years of operation, assets get

replaced and new technology finds its way into existing plants – however, the existing integration of these assets into a PLC/ DCS is rarely touched. All the new features and functionalities are not accessible without interaction on the asset itself.

The digitisation and interconnection of all operational assets offer enormous potential for cost savings and optimisation in the process industry.

How to get the asset information While the philosophy of IIoT is to unlock exactly this hidden potential of connected devices, existing plants are often quite the opposite: locked down systems, with no means of connecting to the installed assets.

Further, if one wants to make use of the features and functionalities of an asset, he/ she would need to have an overview about what is actually installed in the plant, where it is installed and what the asset actually can offer – not all data provided is of use sometimes.

When talking about IIoT, it is always

stipulated that we require data to create valuable insights. Although this is true, it is often disregarded that there are some necessary steps that must be taken in between. Before one can analyse gathered data, it is crucial to know who the data provider is and what kind of data one can expect to receive.

Without knowing what is installed, what data will be provided, it is a hard to analyse this data. Especially in plants that have been around for a few years, it is often not clear what the actual installed base looks like.

Who are the manufacturers I have installed?

How many different asset types do I have?

Are the assets still available or are there any obsolete ones?

So the first step into IIoT includes manual work: creating a list of all installed assets in a plant, with at least some basic information such as manufacturer, asset type, location, and a unique identifier (usually the serial number).

Traditionally, one was sent into the plant with pen and paper, gathering the

* Regional industry manager Europe metal IIoT, Endress + Hauser Messtechnik GmbH ** Business development manager, Endress + Hauser Process Solutions AG www.steeltimesint.com

Endress.indd 1

November/December 2018

14/11/2018 11:22:04

26

IIoT APPLICATIONS

serial numbers, the manufacturer, the asset type and other relevant information such as location.

After this data has been put into a list then the real work starts: are the assets still available? Where are the documents, manuals and calibration certificates stored?

Relying on existing documentation is not usually recommended: documentation about installed assets is often outdated or incomplete, so that this can hardly serve as a basis. There is usually no other way than to go through the system physically, to manually identify, capture, and create the database. Obviously, this method of creating the database presents a great deal of time and personnel. In addition, neither the data consistency nor the actuality of the data is guaranteed.

Even though this is a crucial step towards the world of data analytics/IIoT, the entry hurdle is very high as the time and money spent on creating a simple list of installed assets is outweighing the benefit.

Manual and automatic asset database creation and digital twin With today’s available technologies, this

Fig 1. Optimised asset list creation

Network topology - from sensors to digital services

Fig 2. Automatic creation of asset database

November/December 2018

Endress.indd 2

entry hurdle can be lowered: mobile devices are capable of creating a device database easily utilising a smartphone app (see Fig. 1: Optimised asset list creation); in just a few steps and in a matter of seconds.

For the unambiguous identification of the devices usually a combination of the serial number and manufacturer is used. These can be found on the respective markings of the devices, ranging from metallic identification plates to identification methods such as QR codes to digital tag labels such as RFID. After the identification of the assets, further information can be attached to this now generated “digital twin”, such as geolocation (using the GPS

functionality of the mobile device, for example), the tag of the asset, information such as criticality, other comments or even photos and drawings of the instrument and its location. In tests with participants of different ages and education levels, the average time it took to gather all this information and create the database entry was less than a minute.

Obviously, in a plant with hundreds of assets, this still might become a tedious task.

In addition to manual capture, there are nowadays also methods for automatically creating this database (see Fig. 2). Since the development of digital communication protocols such as HART, PROFIBUS or FOUNDATION fieldbus, the goal was always to provide the user with more information out of the field and unlock the features and information that the manufacturers built into their devices. As these protocols are standardised by the corresponding authorities, there are means to read out the electronic name plate of connected assets automatically. This will reduce massively the effort in creating an installed base overview with the digital twins of a process automation plant.

In field trials with selected partners Endress+Hauser was able to automatically generate a database including more than 800 assets in a single plant in less than four hours – from the installation of the edge device to the last digital twin being created.

But what happens next? Regardless of whether the database is created manually or via a so-called edge device, it can now connect in the background with the asset information database of the manufacturer and be filled with the device-specific documents such as manuals and certifications. With a database that is second to none, the Endress+Hauser asset management system contains data records of 47 million installed field devices. This is important as in today’s process automation plants, a large number of field devices and sensors from various manufacturers are installed and used. To operate and maintain these plants economically, a successful plant asset management (PAM) system is necessary. Studies have shown that up to 70% of the time spent on a maintenance job is in search of information – not with the actual maintenance job. Taking into account that currently there are around www.steeltimesint.com

14/11/2018 11:22:07

IIoT APPLICATIONS

Asset health – from static to dynamic asset information Now that the connection to the field is established (via the edge device) and a comprehensive overview on the installed assets is available, the next step can be performed: the visualisation of asset health. Thanks to Heartbeat Technology for example, the field devices are also able to output diagnostic values and device-specific trend parameters.

This asset data can be visualised to give the user an indication on the availability of his assets. Gathering this information over a longer period of time and cross-referencing it with other process variables or external factors can then ultimately end up in a predictive maintenance application.

This is the logical step from static to dynamic asset information. Collecting and trending asset health of periods of time and storing it in a database can ultimately lead to a collection of data, which can then be used to predict the asset health.

No security compromise Of course, all these additional features and functionalities related to asset management should never compromise on the security and integrity of the actual process. As shown in Fig. 2, by adding a bypass channel (through the Edge Device and the Ethernet to PROFIBUS Gateway) to the asset management database, the PLC/DCS remains untouched. This offers multiple benefits: • No programming of the PLC/DCS is needed to unlock the asset features.

• Existing plants can be easily retrofitted without the fear of interfering with the existing process.

November/December 2018

Endress.indd 3

Asset obsolescence Below you find the availability of the assets at the provider 3%

60%

32%

5%

75 order stop

11 140 phase out available

8 undefined

Product status for 8 assets is undefined Set the product status and improve your insight

Fig 3. Visualisation of asset obsolescence automatically generated in the database by cross-referencing the gathered asset data with data from the manufacturer

• A bypass establishes another level of security, as asset management data is clearly separated from process data.

Today’s field devices often have the necessary connectivity already built-in to transmit data directly to the database.

This can be done by connecting through Wi-Fi, Ethernet technologies or even cellular connection.

Security aspects In order to understand the relevant security aspects, it is necessary to take a look at the architecture. This will give the entry points for the security discussion and show critical points of interest: The data flow starts in the field at the instruments. Via interfacing devices like gateways these data are then transmitted into the cloud, where they are transformed into information. There, additional data sources may be injected to create even more information. These can be other Endress+Hauser systems or customer environments like engineering tools or ERP systems.

The connection to the asset management database has to be established in a secure manner. As shown in Fig. 2, the Edge Device is located behind the company’s firewall. As an additional security measure, the connectivity between the Edge Device and the Asset Management Database is a one-way street: In this example there is no direct connection possible between the asset management database and the field network.

As security, trust and compliance are sensitive topics, a quality audit is essential.

When the decision is to go for any IIoT offering, an accountable quality assessment of cloud services through a transparent and reliable certification process should be part of the process. Any quality audit needs to consider different frameworks and law regulations, these should include at least: • ISO 27001: Information security management.

• IEC 62443 Security for industrial

Fig 4. Digital service program for IIoT applications

Cloud solutions

� Application solutions

Apps & services

rity

30% of obsolete assets installed, this bears a big risk for running a plant smoothly.

Just simply making the user aware of the obsolescence situation would be a big step forward into the direction of asset management. Luckily, asset management can easily provide this information as shown in Fig. 3.

By having all this information at hand, this not only increases the efficiency of the maintenance technicians, but also reduces the risk of faulty/inefficient maintenance, as the correct information is provided to the right person. However, this requires a well-maintained and comprehensive device information database, which we just created in the last step.

Big data platform

IT s ecu

28

Connectivity

Processors 4.0

� Cloud-based services for data analysis and generation of new insights � Endress+Hauser IoT platform � Integration into customer cloud platforms (SAP, Microsoft, GE etc) � Edge gateways for IT/OT connectivity

� Advanced process data � IT-based connectivity � Security by design

www.steeltimesint.com

14/11/2018 11:22:08

Tame your coil processing with equipment designed and manufactured for superior reliability and performance.

Guild International can design and build the welding machinery you need to keep your coil processing lines up and running smoothly and profitably. We are the world leader in supplying highly-engineered coil joining equipment known for reliability and performance. Contact us today to begin designing the perfect coil joining equipment for your processing lines.

NB Overlap Resistance WeldersTM produce fast, high strength welds.

A full line of accumulators are available which can be added to any existing entry system.

Fully automatic RCM ZipwelderTM is engineered to be the most technically advanced shearwelder available.

www.guildint.com • +1.440.232.5887 USA

World leader in coil joining equipment for the steel processing, tube producing and stamping industries since 1958

30

• • • • •

IIoT APPLICATIONS

automation and control systems.

Contract & compliance.

Data privacy.

Operational processes.

Software as a service.

ISO 20000: Service Management System.

To comply with all previously mentioned requirements, it is necessary to have proper functions and features implemented in the software. The following outlines some of the security measures that we undertake: Encryption of passwords: To ensure user confidentiality of passwords they should not be stored in plain text. In the case of the aforementioned asset database, for example, passwords at the user side are encrypted with ‘bcrypt + salt + pepper’ and just the hash is stored in the database.

OAuth (Open Authorisation): To support safe user identification during the usage of the software, there should be a tokenised process to identify users against the cloud service. User passwords should be transmitted only for token generation.

This compli-cates scamming attempts and guarantees a safe authorisation.

Encrypted communication channels only: The communication channel to the cloud service should always be established via a secure and encrypted https connection.

Thereby all payload data should be encrypted according to industry standards and the cloud computers should be trustfully authenticated by a certificate November/December 2018

Endress.indd 4

issued by a world-wide renowned certificate authority.

User information: When accessing his or her account the user should be able to see past activities. The same mechanisms are used for online banking to detect possible fraud usage or failed login attempts.

Processes: In the event of serious security incidents, which may occur even in the saf-est environment, the provider should have established internal processes to react as quickly as possible and to inform all affected parties to keep users safe from harm.

Server location: A trustful and reliable cloud hosting partner should be used, where the servers are located in a safe location. For example, the servers in the here shown example are located and operated under European law and jurisdiction, which is among the most stringent in the world.

Customers should be made aware that their data is subject to one of the highest data security standards worldwide.

Gateway security: The gateway is a critical point in the architecture because it represents the access point from and to the user’s plant and should record only data from the field and transmit these into the cloud. Vice versa, i.e. from cloud to the gateway, no communication should be initiated. Thus all incoming ports to the gateway need to be blocked. The only exceptions are software updates for the gateway: Software updates need to be

installed in parallel to the running system.

When everything is complete the gateway would switch to the updated runtime and disconnected for the period of the reboot. To guarantee safe downloads, these updates should be certified and checked against the original file to prevent manipulation.

Customer data: All customer data used by the provider should solely be owned by the customer and should not be shared with 3rd party service providers.

Summary: IIoT offers innovative ways in doing things better, utilising assets that are already existing. With Analytics, a digital service for installed base analysis is offered to customers already today (see Fig. 4). The installed base of a system can be simply captured and analysed using real-time and historic data. Asset information in the field is recorded with a mobile smart device using the new Endress+Hauser Scanner app that reads an RFID chip, QR code or tag – alternatively, the asset informa¬tion can be captured automatically by an edge device. All the data are saved to the cloud, visualised on a dashboard, and asset management recommendations are issued, for example, product availability.

In future we expect to see more possibilities of connecting and how the data can be used. Data security and privacy are a big concern and should be considered carefully.

The IIoT provider should be critically reviewed and checked. An independent certification organisation can help here. � www.steeltimesint.com

14/11/2018 11:22:13

32

VIEWPOINT

How tech catalyses disruptive change An abundance of new technology in the R+D pipeline doesn’t always point to a dynamic industry, and the global steel industry is a case in point. The capital intensity of our industry is high by any standards, and since the time of Bessemer there has been a perpetual challenge of a new generation of technology arriving before the last generation’s assets have paid for themselves. The industry’s adoption of Bessemer’s convertor itself was famously slow, and contemporary alternative high-volume steelmaking processes were cautiously adopted too. By Mick Steeper* THE volume boom of the mid-19th Century eventually ensued, but steel has been a fraught sector for investors ever since.

Overcapacity became intrinsic, and thus low margins were persistent. As a result, the return on expensive new technology has long been weak compared with most other

sectors.

None of this has ever stopped the development of the technology. It has slowed its uptake, but the pipeline has always built up steadily nonetheless.

The pattern of adoption of the most significant new technology has itself

become foreseeable, because a point is always reached where the potential competitive advantage of a technology shift is seen to outweigh the barriers to its implementation. A disruptor then acts, and his success (or anticipation of it) compels others in the industry to follow and re-

* Mick Steeper recently retired from the Chair of the Iron and Steel Society (the Steel Division of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining), following a career in R+D in the plant building industry.

November/December 2018

M steeper.indd 1

www.steeltimesint.com

15/11/2018 09:46:36

— Millmate Strip Scanner The leading edge technology

Improved accuracy leads to better margins, both financially and in the process.

Keep track of your strip edges in your mills and process lines using the Millmate Strip Scanner System (MSS), a well-proven robust sensor with negligible maintenance costs. Based on ABB’s patented Pulsed Eddy Current technology, it is a non-contact sensor with no moving parts. The measurement is extremely stable, even during the worst conditions. Mill coolant, steam, heat and dust do not affect the measurement. By using the MSS system you will achieve better strip position control resulting in better flatness control possibilities, reduced scrap, improved threading and better coiling. www.abb.com/stripscanner

34

VIEWPOINT

equip. In the most complete form of this process, the entire industry responds and all steelmakers are either driven to re-equip or else exit. The technology base of the global steel industry, therefore, proceeds in bursts, with infrequent “sea-changes” taking the place of the continuous incremental development that prevails in smaller-scale and more highly differentiated industries.

The sea-change of Bessemer’s time was in operating volume. Before it, steel companies were viable as ten-tonnes-a-day enterprises.

As a result of it, the baseline became something like a hundred tonnes an hour.

The technology had been waiting, and almost as soon as the Bessemer converter appeared a rival emerged in what became the open hearth process, since reverbatory furnaces were already in use for copper smelting.

Steel companies could now become large and powerful by adopting one technology or the other, investors became persuaded of the opportunity and a new order was eventually established across the global industry.

The most recent sea-change concerns process simplification. The bulk materials industries all migrate naturally towards continuous flow, as far as their technology permits it. Energy and time efficiency are maximised when it is possible, put in simple

Fig. 2 voestalpine blanking

November/December 2018

M steeper.indd 2

Fig. 1 - Bessemer and Iverson

terms, to pour raw materials into one end of a production line and take finished goods from the other.

Throughout the 1960s, the steel industry shifted from ingot-teeming and breakdown rolling to a continuously-cast mill feedstock.

The next level of a flow process required a disruptor, however, and in the 1990s Iverson at Nucor obliged (Fig. 1).

The success of the EAF-based mini-mill as an alternative to the traditional integrated steelplant provides a well-documented case study in steel technology evolution1.

Today’s technology platforms The enabling technology for the next sea-

change in steel might well be the tools and methods of Industry4.0. The remainder of this paper looks at foreseeable sea-changes, and how Industry4.0 might accelerate them. The most likely sea-changes share common characteristics, in that: i. They are already technically feasible ii. They tend to have either an economic or an environmental context (in some cases both) that is broader, and potentially more compelling, than the interests of the steel industry iii. They offer a business opportunity through early exploitation and hence a potential trigger to disruptive adoption.

Any potential sea-change that exhibits all of these characteristics is very likely to happen to some degree and at some point in time. The completeness and rate of adoption, as well as the location of the disruptor, are less predictable.

The core technology of Industry4.0 itself (meaning the automation and data exchange technologies that integrate modern manufacturing systems) is not especially well-suited to steelmaking, nor indeed to any of the bulk materials industries. The benefits of Industry4.0 are maximised when process routes and supply chains are more complex than those of steel, and the development focus of Industry4.0 centres on product integration and assembly, in industrial sectors which include steel’s major customers. The automotive industry is an obvious example, and there are some instructive steel company successes based on co-operative development with car manufacturers2.

The anticipation of more fundamental Industry4.0-driven change in the steel industry, leading to potential sea-change shifts in process technology, requires a different and deeper analysis, however. A starting-point for this is the identification of current economic and/or environmental contexts as described in point ii. of the list.

To illustrate the approach, the table of Fig. 3 gives three such contexts.

To identify ways in which Industry4.0 might transform the steel industry, we can now look for ways in which today’s industry and its value chain are constrained by the limitations of present-day automation and data access. For example, the third point of Fig. 3 introduces the possibility of a declining strip market. It will be instructive to remind ourselves of why we make strip in the first place. www.steeltimesint.com

15/11/2018 09:46:37

35

VIEWPOINT

Global context

Steel industry context

Opportunity for

Threat to

CO2 emissions from BF ironmaking

EAF operators

Integrated works operators

Increasing scrap supply (EoL of noughties output)

EAF operators, scrap processors

Climate change Sustainable materials sourcing Autonomous vehicles

Less material in automotive BIW (diminished crash resistance

Strip producers

requirement, extreme lightweighting opportunity)

Fig 3. Table of Contexts

Variable Flange Thickness

Variable Web Depth

Fig 4. Principles of Ideal Beam (also showing “Dogbone” casting of Beam Mill feedstock)

Recycling without re-melting, re-use Reduced demand: light-weighting (using less material by design) Reduced demand: Extending service life of steel products Radical process efficiencies: Near net shape processing, minimised heating cycles

Fig 5. Table of 4 ways to use steel efficiently

A strip paradox?

Steel is in one way a poor material for surface applications: its corrosion behaviour is adverse. In order to alleviate this, the body-in-white of a modern steel car is invariably coated with another metal (zinc). Steel’s ascendancy in the application is historically founded in the ease and low cost of fabrication, and a strengthto-weight ratio that has always been advantageous and which is progressively consolidated by R+D effort.

There is an unstated attribute here too, however. Steel is a high quality material, meaning that it is very consistent in its properties and thus very stable in both its manufacturing and service performance.

The pursuit of this attribute further defines the performance criteria of strip production, in terms of the precise control of gauge and profile, but also of metallurgical processing control conditions such as straintemperature path. We make strip this way because it assures the maximum yield of a homogeneous product.

The idea is intrinsic to the notion of rolled steel as a “semi”. Highly uniform material properties across the width and along the length of the coil (as well as from coil to coil) provide a foundation for manufacturing consistency. 3D structures can be built by fabrication, and in many www.steeltimesint.com

M steeper.indd 3

applications the homogeneity requirements have rendered this a more usual method than incorporating a rolled profile.

Industry4.0 could change this, however.

The heterogeneity of profiles is repeatable and predictable, and the nature of cooling in the hot mill gives the property variation a generally helpful bias, towards harder edges and surfaces relative to a more ductile bulk metal. The power of modern computing, moreover, makes design for heterogeneity a realistic proposition. The very beginnings of the possibilities underpin the tailored blank examples from Ref. 2 (also Fig. 2), but in future this could progress a lot further.

The other contexts of Fig. 3 also play into this idea. Why should we learn to manufacture in steel with a systematic property variation, when doing so will still be more difficult than fabrication from suitably-trimmed strip? Because the climate change imperative means that we need to use less steel, and to recycle more of it from scrap (which in turn may mean compensating in manufacture for the effect of residuals).

The most complete study of these principles to date is due to the University of Cambridge3. An example of the potential of heterogeneous design collaboration in a different supply chain is illustrated in Fig. 4, illustrating the principle of the

Ideal Beam. Steel I-beams should not be uniform in section for maximum efficiency in their conventional mode of use as a beam spanning two columns. The bending moment is maximum at the centre of the span, so the flange thickness should be greater there than at the ends. If all construction beams could be optimised on this basis, the annual reduction in carbon emissions would run to hundreds of millions of tonnes. In fact it is entirely possible to roll Ideal Beams, using a modern variant of an established design (the original Grey Mill), although to do so with the desirable range of thickness variation would also require a variable dogbone caster. The fact that no such mill/caster combinations exist is a consequence of the obvious drawback – that steel companies are unlikely to buy new and complex equipment in order to sell less steel.

Possible future business models Selling less steel (in tonnage terms) is implicit in a sustainable future, however, because using steel more efficiently is an imperative. Fig. 5 (after Ref. 3) identifies the four main ways in which this might be achieved. The tools and principles of Industry4.0 make progress in all four directions realistically possible, especially by sharing the steelmakers’ expertise in the form of their material models through the entire value chain to include end-product design and manufacture. Industry4.0 can also realise mass customisation goals, and in many if not all cases, the flexible and reconfigurable variants of steel processing plant that would also be needed are known already.

November/December 2018

15/11/2018 09:46:38

36

VIEWPOINT

equipment development – western steel has The missing elements are, therefore, the long since spun out its design expertise, but source of ROI on new capital plant and China in particular might avoid making the the remuneration of the steelmaker for a broadened role of knowledge provider. Some same mistake.

The trend to electric arc steelmaking of the historical conventions, such as selling will accelerate as zero-carbon electricity steel by weight, will have to change too. generation takes hold, and might presage a The steel industry’s key skill is major role for original steelmakers in power the alteration of steel properties generation as a core business. Collaborative through controlled adjustments in the manufacturing process. Of course this is not operations with other materials producers an original idea, and neither is the extension may also evolve: the co-refining of titanium and direct-reduced iron from rutile sands is of the skill to cover steel applications as one variant predicted in a future world of well as production. What would be new electricity from fusion, in which the cost of is an acceptance that the skill is what the electricity will consist almost solely of the steel customer pays for, rather than the investment burden of the generating assets. commodity of the metal.

Mass-customised profile products can be Early examples of knowledge-based expected to displace strip as the principal steelmakers are already recognisable (see “traditional” product of the global steel Refs. 1 and 2 for cases). The next step industry. towards a sea-change to knowledge-based steel might be backward integration, of When our successors are in a position which there will be raw materials and to view the first half of the 21st Century engineering variants within the supply in hindsight, they will probably conclude chain. The reclaiming of scrap prospecting that the influence of Industry4.0 on the by steelmakers is predictable. Less obvious transformation of the steel industry was but just as likely is the reclaiming of process indirect.

Steel’s customers can and will Eddisons CJM - Advertising Templates_Steel Times Int QP 18/10/2018 16:4

exploit Industry4.0 more than steel itself does, but it will be their demands that draw steelmakers into the knowledge-based value chain. Once there, new opportunities to add value ought to kindle a (long forgotten?) spirit of enterprise. As any metallurgist will confirm, there is no material more receptive to knowledge-based manipulation than steel. A knowledge-based steel industry will moreover enjoy some built-in resistance to low-cost entrants and hence to the investment-stifling bane of overcapacity.

The future of steel is destined to be very different from the present, and better too. � References 1. R. Ranieri and J. Aylen, “The Steel Industry in the New Millennium, Vol. 1 – Technology and the Market”, IOM Communications, London, 1998.

ISBN 978-1-8612-5019-3 2. D. Madar, “Big Steel: Technology, Trade and Survival in A Global Market”, UBCPress, Vancouver, 2009. ISBN 978-0-7748-1667-0 3. J Allwood, J Cullen et al, “Sustainable Materials With Both Eyes Open”, UIT, Cambridge, 2012. ISBN 978-1-9068-6005-9

E: sales@cjmasset.com T: +44(0)1724 334 411 W: www.eddisonscjm.com Instructed by Öztüre Çelik AS

For Sale by Negotiation

120,000 Tonnes Per Annum Rebar Rolling Mill For Sale as result of site Redevelopment On Foundation & under power Feedstock: 130 x 130mm x 2000mm Billet n Finished Product: Rebar and other Rounds 12mm – 25mm n Full Refurbishment 2009 n Mill Comprises: Gas Fired Billet Reheat Furnace; Roughing Stand; 2 x Intermediate Stands; 8 x Finishing Stands; Cooling Box; Measuring Pinch Roll; Rotary Bar Shear; Twin Channel Runout to Fixed Shear; Cooling Beds; Bundling and Packing Station; Range of spares including Mill Stands; Rolls & Chocks; Spindles’ Motors; Gearboxes; Shear & Bar Guides etc n

Guide Price: US $990,000 to include spares & drawings Location: Izmir, Turkey Further Information & Inspection: Charles Moses FRICS T: +44 (0)7831 854971 E: charles.moses@eddisonscjm.com

SUBSCRIPTION OFFER SUBSCRIBE TO STEEL TIMES INTERNATIONAL AND RECEIVE 10% OFF A ONE YEAR SUBSCRIPTION OR 20% OFF A TWO YEAR SUBSCRIPTION Subscribe today and you will receive: Eight issues of Steel Times International plus a FREE copy of the Steel Times International Directory and a FREE Wall Calendar featuring steel industry events. You will also receive a digital version of every issue, plus a weekly news bulletin by email.

Simply visit www.steeltimesint.com and enter promotional code STMAGOFFER for 10% off a one year subscription or 20% off a two year subscription. Refresh your basket before proceeding.

SIGN UP ONLINE TO RECEIVE THE FREE WEEKLY NEWSLETTER

WWW.STEELTIMESINT.COM/E-NEWSLETTER

@SteelTimesInt

Eddisons CJM, Dunlop Way, Scunthorpe, DN16 3RN

www.steeltimesint.com

November/December 2018 STI-SubsOffer_Quarter_Page_Ad.indd 1 M steeper.indd 4

22/05/2018 11:28 15/11/2018 09:46:39

38

MINIMILLS

Even though their prices haven’t jumped up as much as some other steel products, 2018 has been a very good year for US carbon steel bar products with the strength of both steel reinforcing bar (rebar) and merchant bar expected to continue into next year, barring any unforeseen circumstances. Myra Pinkham* reports.

ACCORDING to Becky E. Hites, president of Atlanta-based Steel-Insights LLC, year-todate through July (the latest data available at press time) US domestic shipments of steel reinforcing bar (rebar) were up 14.4%, US hot-rolled bar shipments were up 14.3% and US cold finished bar shipments were up 40%. She says that the increase was even more pronounced when comparing July shipments to a year earlier – 21% for rebar, 30% for hot-rolled bar and just under 50% for cold-finished bar. Total US carbon and alloy steel bar shipments were up 22% yearon-year in July.

“This strength has been underpinned by a number of factors,” Philip K. Bell, president of the Steel Manufacturers Association (SMA), says, pointing out that it isn’t just because the Section 232 import tariffs and quotas and other trade policies have eased import competition, but it is also being supported by strong underlying demand, including pent up demand in the construction and energy sectors, which, he says, has been bolstered further by the recent corporate tax cuts and an easing of regulatory burdens.

Some industry observers, however, have voiced concerns about the sustainability of the impact of these incentives. In fact, John Anton, associate director of IHS Markit’s pricing and purchasing service, maintains that the market, like the US economy in general, is just on a “sugar high” that will eventually be followed by “cranky” conditions, especially if interest rates continue to rise. “We aren’t looking at a recession, but there will likely be sub2% growth for the next decade,” Anton predicts.

A good year?

Even though John Tumazos, president of Very Independent Research LLC, Holmdel, N.J., says he believes that bringing the corporate tax rate down to 21% is likely to eventually have more of an impact upon the future reshoring of US manufacturing than the Section 232 tariffs, he points out that it won’t instantaneously translate into increased bar steel demand. Not only is reshoring a gradual process, one that is likely to stretch out five to 10 years, but even when such decisions are made it takes over three years to design, permit and build a new plant.

A big demand driver for US steel bar products – especially rebar, but for merchant bar as well – is construction activity, which, Anton says, has been rising slightly, although not all that much. “There has actually been more stagnation than growth,” he maintains.

According to the Census Bureau, total US construction spending was up 5.8% yearon-year in July, including a 3.2% increase for private non-residential construction and a 6.7% increase for private residential construction. While spending was up 8.3% year-on-year for total public construction, it was only up 3.9% for highway and street

construction, which is the biggest public works sector for bar products. “Rebar demand would be even hotter if there was greater infrastructure spending,” Tumazos points out.

Also, he says the increase in private non-residential construction doesn’t necessarily reflect bar demand in that sector given that the “debacle” in retail construction (an 8% year-on-year decline), has been offset by strength in e-commerce warehouses and distribution centres, where spending increased 13% year-on-year. But a lot of merchant bars are used in retail construction and very little for warehouses.

Hites says that while rebar use in the construction sector was up 11% year-todate through June, it was down for shapes and hot-rolled and light shape bar.

Anton says the greatest activity in infrastructure construction has been for investments in the energy sector, which are now reaching their maximum at a very high level and will now likely go sideways.

Otherwise, he says, that even though infrastructure construction activity isn’t weak, it isn’t strong either.

“There is absolutely a need for infrastructure investment in the United

* USA correspondent November/December 2018

Minimills carbon Myra.indd 1

www.steeltimesint.com

13/11/2018 14:52:02

MINIMILLS

current levels. He is referring to the 10year, $1 trillion infrastructure-spending plan that Trump has proposed ever since he ran for president. He is now pushing for about $200 billion to come from federal funds with the balance to come from state and local funds and a number of other funding schemes, such as public-private partnerships. Anton doesn’t believe that this plan, which keeps on getting delayed and for which there continues to be no consensus on how it will be funded, is likely to be passed by Congress until bridges start falling down and they have no choice but to do something. Even though infrastructure spending does have bi-partisan support, Anton argues that no one can figure out how to pay for it, especially with the growing federal deficit, which is being made worse by recent tax reform/tax cuts.

“People will react to a crisis, but they aren’t going to do it in advance,” he says,

States,” SMA’s Bell says, especially given that the latest American Society of Civil Engineers’ “report card” giving the state of US infrastructure a cumulative D+.

But despite this it doesn’t seem that infrastructure investment is as high a priority with the Trump administration as it used to be. “Congress is currently bogged down with other things, and now with the mid-term elections coming up, no one is going to be talking about infrastructure at least for the next year,” notes Mike Emerson, chief executive officer of Huntington Steel, a Charleston, W.Va.,based steel service centre.

In fact, Anton says he doesn’t believe that there will be any additional federal infrastructure investment spending above www.steeltimesint.com

Minimills carbon Myra.indd 2

given that funding such a plan would involve taking that money from other parts of the government, probably the Department of Defense, and with the US federal deficit skyrocketing, partly due to the tax cuts. “You can have tax cuts or you can have infrastructure investment,” Anton says. “But you can’t have both. There just isn’t enough money.”

It had been hoped that some of this infrastructure investment would have been addressed by the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act highway bill passed late in 2015 – the United States’ first new surface transportation reauthorisation bill passed in over a decade.

But while it was much appreciated and long overdue, Bell says that it didn’t drive

39

demand in a significant way as it still wasn’t a fully funded, long-term, steel-intensive infrastructure package.

Despite this, Anton says he doesn’t believe that the proposed infrastructure spending plan is a rational part of a 2019 or even a 2022 business plan. “Even though US roads and bridges need to be repaired and replaced, there isn’t a need for an investment stimulus programme,” especially with unemployment at a 49 year low of just 3.7%. “So, rebar shouldn’t count on it.”

Anton says that merchant bar demand, while not bad, is also somewhat stagnant.

He says that its use in machinery is “okay but not great” with companies spending more of the money from the tax cuts on stock buybacks than in new machinery.

Also, auto production is flat. Although vehicles are getting bigger with the popularity of light trucks, that is being offset by North American auto output edging down to about 16.8 million units this year, from a peak of 17.5 million units in 2016.

It appears that the US bar market has reacted much better to the Section 232 trade action than the flat steel market, Anton says, noting that while there has been a slight constriction of supply, bar availability remains pretty good, resulting in much less price volatility. While flat-rolled steel prices jumped about 50% since late last year, bar prices have only come up 30% or less. In fact, Tumazos says that rebar, which as of early October was selling at about $700 per short ton, is the lowest priced carbon steel product by a margin of $100 to $300 per ton with merchant bar not selling at much of a premium at $760 per ton.

While Lee Allen, a metals analyst for Fastmarkets MB (formerly Metal Bulletin Research), says he believes that rebar prices are expected to decline slightly during the fourth quarter with the expected normalisation of the spread between steel and scrap prices. This follows several months of flat domestic rebar prices.

However, he says they could come back up somewhat starting in the second quarter of 2019. Allen says that when rebar prices do start coming down, the United States won’t be an as attractive destination for foreign rebar as it had been in the past.

Meanwhile, Emerson says that he doesn’t expect merchant bar prices to also drop, at least not until the middle of next year, and even that will depend on whether growth November/December 2018

13/11/2018 14:52:06

40

MINIMILLS

in the US economy slows down on the back of the uncertainty about how long Section 232 tariffs will remain in effect.

“That uncertainty has made everyone into spot buyers because spot prices are the only thing they know, the only thing that they can count on right now.”

Industry observers widely attribute this price differential to a stepping up of bar, particularly rebar, production capacity.

According to the SMA’s Bell, about 1Mt to 1.4Mt of bar capacity has recently come online or is expected to do so over the next few years through the building of new plants – micro-mills – or plant additions, adding that the lion’s share of this new capacity is coming from electric arc furnace steelmakers Commercial Metals Co. (CMC), Nucor Corp. and Steel Dynamics Inc. (SDI).

It has been said that much of the motivation for this was the anticipation of additional infrastructure demand. There were also concerns over supply constraints, including the impact of trade policies, which could have had some impact upon some of the more recent capacity announcements, especially the recent doubling of Section 232 tariffs against steel (and aluminium) imports from Turkey, which accounted for nearly 60% of US rebar imports in 2017. Anton says that it has mainly been domestic steel making up the difference now that Turkish rebar is essentially being kept out of the United States.

Allen says that while US Census preliminary data suggests that rebar imports rose more than 100% in August, that was before the Trump administration’s doubling of Section 232 tariffs on Turkish imports had a knock-on effect on steel shipments.

He notes that while some more Turkish imports trickled in during September, those November/December 2018

Minimills carbon Myra.indd 3

were just imports that got through the nets and that companies paid through the nose for that rebar.

“There haven’t been many new bookings of Turkish rebar since the tariffs were raised,” he says.

Even with European rebar prices being somewhat appealing, Allen says there wasn’t a great deal of European rebar bought by US companies, who have become more cautious about building up their inventories through concern about what the political and tariff situation will do to rebar prices. But despite Section 232 tariffs, there has been a pick-up in rebar from Taiwan, which isn’t usually a big exporter of rebar into the United States, as well as from Mexico, a more common rebar exporter. “But imports from these countries are still nowhere (near) enough to offset what had been coming from Turkey,” Allen says.

But given the uncertainty of the longevity of Section 232, as well as the uncertainty

about the impact of other US trade policies, including the deal that was recently reached with Canada and Mexico to revamp the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) under a new name – the United States, Mexico and Canada Agreement (USMCA) – this is less of a factor in a domestic steelmakers’s decision to restart or increase existing capacity or to build new facilities. This is definitely the case with the USMCA. This tri-lateral agreement must still be approved by Congress, which is not a certainty, and, at least at this point, doesn’t remove Section 232 tariffs from Canada and Mexico.

Bell notes that decisions to bring additional capacity online are not decisions that steelmakers enter into lightly, and that many of the decisions were made, or at least contemplated, prior to the US Section 232 proclamation.

In fact, CMC’s second rebar micro-mill, located in Durant, Okla., was commissioned in April and is continuing to ramp up and is expected to soon become the first North American mill to produce hot spooled rebar.

Nucor is in the midst of modernising its Marion, Ohio, rebar mill, as well as building two rebar micro-mills – one in Sedalia, Mo., and another in Frostproof, Fla. – and is adding a 500kt/yr merchant bar mill at its Nucor Steel Kankakee Inc. plant in Bourbonnais, Ill. Steel Dynamics is adding capacity in Columbia, Ind., and in Roanoke, Va. This, the company says, will diversify SDI’s product portfolio by including spooled, custom, cut-to-length and smooth rebar.

Bell says micro-mills could be a trend for the future, at least for the US bar market, driven by their ability to meet customer demand in very specific markets and to do so very cost efficiently due to their small footprint and their use of continuous casting to produce bar in a more efficient way. They are also seen to be less energy efficient and more flexible.

Bell says that 2018 has been a good year for both the US rebar and merchant bar markets and that next year should also be a pretty good year as long as consumer confidence – and, therefore, the US economy – stays strong. � www.steeltimesint.com

13/11/2018 14:52:14

OVER 120 YEARS IN STRIP FINISHING EQUIPEMENT

UNGERER STRIP FINISHING LINES From Coil to Coil | From Coil to Sheet | From Coil to Slit Strip

UNGERER Technology GmbH, specialist in plant, machinery and systems engineering, enables experienced, eco-designed, customized one-stop solutions and comprehensive services from a single source.

Visit us Booth A2651

> Stretch-Bend-Levelling Lines > Cut-to-Length Lines > Slitting Lines > Roller Levellers > Unflatness Measuring System UMS Pro ® > Electric & Automation > World Service

Find out more about our equipment portfolio

www.ungerer.com

UNGERER Technology GmbH | 75179 Pforzheim | Germany Ph. +49 7231 942-0 | E. info@ungerer.com

42

STEELMAKING

Slag detection in steelmaking Slag detection systems at the BOF and caster have become integral parts of new steel melt shops the world over, and as retrofits on older shops. This paper reviews traditional and new thermo-optical devices to detect the start of slag flow. By I Banerjee , S Kumar, and S Singh

CONTINUOUS casting has become an increasingly important step in the manufacture of steels in the last three decades, accounting for 96% of all steel cast in 2017. The quality of steel produced by continuous casting is greatly affected by entrapment of slag at various stages of steelmaking. There are two main events during steelmaking where slag needs to be detected and prevented from entering the steel bath. One is during tapping of steel at the converter and the other during the flow of steel from the ladle to the tundish during continuous casting. Steel cleanness is an important factor in the economic production of steel and the quantity of slag carried over from one process to the next is a significant parameter. The financial implications of slag carried over are serious, whether it occurs intermittently or routinely for any given process, whether it is the basic oxygen furnace (BOF), Argon Oxygen decarburisation (AOD) or Electric Arc Furnace (EAF).

71% of the steel produced today follows the BOF to concast route, via a ladle to transport the molten steel. Deciding when to stop the flow of molten steel from the converter to the ladle and from the ladle to the caster tundish is very important.

Steel manufacturers have sought a reliable

means of controlling the quantity of slag carried forward from the steelmaking vessel for many years and a variety of solutions have been tried with limited success.

Thermal imaging presents an effective and reliable means of slag control and infrared cameras have been used to create a system that enables steelmakers to control slag carryover.

Basic Oxygen Furnace Basic oxygen furnace slag (BOS) – also called LD-converter slag – is formed during the conversion of hot metal from the blast furnace into steel in a basic oxygen furnace.

In this process the hot metal is treated by blowing oxygen into the melt to remove carbon and other elements that have a high affinity to oxygen. The slag is generated by the addition of fluxes, such as limestone or dolomite that combine with silicates and oxides to form liquid slag. Some scrap steel is also added to control the temperature of these exothermal reactions.

When the reaction process is complete, molten slag floats above the molten steel.

The steel is poured from the converter by tipping the vessel. The crude steel and the slag are tapped into separate ladles at temperatures typically above 1600°C. After tapping, the liquid slag in the pot

can further be treated by injection of SiO2 and oxygen to increase volume stability.

The molten slag is then poured into pits or ground bays where it air-cools under controlled conditions forming crystalline slag. To adjust the required technical properties of the slag for a specific use – such as road surfacing – different measures, such as weathering to reduce lime content, crushing and/or sieving, are performed on the crystalline slag.

The use of BOF slag for road surfacing increases skid resistance and provides a high level of strength (described by the impactand crushing value) compared to natural rocks (eg basalt) and thus makes it an ideal aggregate for road constructions and surface layers for high skid resistance. Other fields of application are the production of fertilisers and the use of armour stones for hydraulic engineering.

Slag detection in BOF Any slag that comes into the steel ladle may have adverse effects, such as reducing alloy recovery rate during trimming the steel to the required specification as it flows into the ladle, rephosphorisation and reoxidation of the molten steel, so it is of great significance to detect any slag carry-over in the tapping stream while filling the steel

Emissivity

1.00 Slag

0.75 0.50 0.25

Steel

3

9 6 Wavelength

Slag free tapping 12

Fig 1. Difference in infrared emissivity of slag and steel with wavelength

Slag chart

First slag in the stream

Full slag

Fig 2. Thermal images during tapping sequence

The authors are with RDCIS (Research & Development Centre for Iron & Steel ), Steel Authority of India Ltd, Ranchi , India.

November/December 2018

Steelmaking Kumar Slag.indd 1

www.steeltimesint.com

13/11/2018 14:54:24

43

STEELMAKING

ladle. Various methods are used to assess the point where slag carry-over has started and tapping should cease.

The human eye During tapping, ie decanting, the operator views the tapping stream from a convenient position that may be above, below or from the sides, to observe the transition point to slag which shows as an increase in brightness in the tapping stream.

However, depending on the process, additions to the melt may take place during tapping, producing vast amounts of airborne dust, smoke and gases. In such conditions the human eye finds it extremely difficult to distinguish the tapping stream itself let alone the difference between slag and steel. Even in clear conditions only experienced operators are able to distinguish the difference between the two stages accurately, thus the process is highly susceptible to operator skill variances.

During any decanting processes the crane driver’s skill will influence the rate of flow and stream continuity.

Slag can be skimmed from the top of the ladle using a ‘rake’, a practice more commonly used when steel is produced by melting scrap in the electric arc furnace (EAF). The accuracy of this method is again dependent on the operator determining the difference between the steel and slag as it is raked off into a slag ladle located below the steel ladle. A further important issue is ensuring operator safety, by minimising exposure to the furnace to reduce siterelated accidents.

Electromagnetic coils The use of electromagnetic coils provides an alarm for an operator when slag begins to flow through the tap hole, at which point the vessel can be tilted back or a sliding gate closed. This is a very effective method of detecting slag, but is handicapped by limited lifespan and reliability. The possibility of an electromagnetic coil failing increases over time, and the only point at which it can be serviced or replaced is during a vessel reline. With a vessel’s life span reaching beyond a year in some cases, the replacement opportunities are limited, with the result that the units are typically available for less than half the time between vessel relines. When used in conjunction with floating stoppers, their effectiveness may be reduced, because of a high www.steeltimesint.com

Steelmaking Kumar Slag.indd 2

IR-Thermal camera

Other process inputs

Image processor

Slag detection HMI

Main controller

Command for converter tilting drive Converter inclination Fig 3. Converter slag detection system

possibility of premature slag alarms being generated due to the nature of operation of the floating elements.

Floating elements – darts and balls Floating darts or balls rely on the difference in density between slag and steel to position this floating element at the interface of the two, above the tap hole.

As the level of slag reaches the tap hole, the floating element restricts the flow of the remaining steel and provides the operator time to react to the presence of slag. These are used primarily on BOF vessels, but can be unsuccessful when the slag is thick or viscous for this prevents the floating element reaching the tap hole. The positioning of these floating elements is critical, with the tap hole structure affecting the performance. If the floating element comes into place too early will close the metal stream prematurely and leave liquid steel in the vessel. If it is incorrectly placed it will not work and another will need to be placed. In practice, floating elements are likely to be used 90% of the time, and with that the effectiveness of those placements is questionable. A further factor limiting the usefulness of this system is the lifespan of the tap hole the diameter of which increases with use over the life of the vessel lining preventing the floating element from seating correctly, thus allowing slag to carry-over. Inserting the dart is problematic in that in many cases it requires an expensive machine run by a highly trained operator. The darts are also consumable and add expense to the process.

Steelmakers have used these techniques to control the carryover of slag from one process to another, none of which are totally reliable for the reasons discussed.

This has led to the introduction of a new technology to replace or complement the

current systems, a cost effective thermal imaging system to lead the way forward.

Thermal imaging technique Liquid steel and slag have different emissivity and, therefore, radiate at different rates when at the same temperature.

Slag has a higher emissivity due to the high number of strong emitters within its composition ie the oxides SiO2, FeO, MnO, CaO and P2O5, while liquid steel has a lower emissivity. The difference in emissivity between steel and slag changes across the infrared spectrum, with the difference between the two being greater at longer wavelengths. A thermal image of the tapping stream displayed in a control room will enable operators to recognise the change in brightness very easily and detect when slag begins to pour. It is possible to use one colour for slag and another for steel in the display and to provide an alarm signal when slag is detected. The liquid steel and slag have approximately the same temperature during tapping, though some steel plant operators believe that slag is actually hotter. The apparent temperature difference can be further enhanced using automation techniques, making the distinction between the two even clearer.

Theory of thermal imaging The liquid slag and liquid steel have different infrared emissivity (Fig 1) for the same temperature due to their differing components, enabling the infrared camera to record real-time images to distinguish between the two materials. The slag has a higher emissivity than the steel, producing a higher infrared radiance temperature, even if it is at the same absolute temperature as the steel.

The relationship between the infrared radiance temperature Tr, the actual November/December 2018

13/11/2018 14:54:24

44

STEELMAKING

temperature T0 and the infrared emissivity can be expressed as formula β = (Tr/To)n, where n = 4.

Evolution of thermal imaging The thermal image camera arrived on the market two decades ago. Being a noncontact technology, it does not wear out or require consumables. An optical or infrared type detector featuring an electronic processor was used and it greatly enhanced repeatability.

For steel industry applications there were certain drawbacks, as in other visual methods, such as fumes obscuring the view in the sight path. Advances over time included long-wavelength thermal imagers with an 8-14μm response. The results were good, as the emissivity between steel and slag is accentuated at longer wavelengths (Fig 2). There is still fume obscuration and

the detection process.

Concast slag detection Continuous casting of steel is now a mature technology accounting by far as the dominant method in global steel production. Surprisingly, there are several aspects of continuous casting that are not yet automated, relying heavily on manual labour and on empirical experience gained throughout 50 years of operating history.

Deciding when to stop the flow of molten steel from the ladle is not trivial, since terminating the process too early affects yield negatively, while closing the outflow valve too late lets slag enter the casting process. The casting shop is a very harsh environment for automation hardware; as most types of sensors and instrumentation are either useless or have a limited lifespan because of the high temperatures, dust,

Tri-axial accelerometer Ladle

Signal conditioning

Shroud Tundish SEN mould

Segment drive Signal processing and display

Data acquisition

Fig 4. Caster slag detection by shroud vibration

the optical materials used in these thermal imagers were not sufficiently durable for the harsh environment, requiring frequent protective window or lens replacements.

Slag detection systems are accompanied by software which allows the automatic identification and tracking of the tap stream. Within the software, various algorithms identify changes to the tap stream emissivity, and stream-to-camera radiation transmission levels. The camera parameters are automatically adjusted in an adaptive manner. Optimal operation of the system is, therefore, achieved. In the tapping pulpit, the molten stream is displayed on a suitable monitor for use by the BOF operators. Such a visual system in the tapping pulpit monitor displays the percentage, or index, of slag in the visible stream area. Fig 3 shows a schematic of November/December 2018

Steelmaking Kumar Slag.indd 3

steam, electromagnetic radiation and occasional sprays of molten steel.

Without automation, the boom operator requires years of training and experience to decide when slag starts to enter the tundish and the ladle needs to be exchanged.

This procedure is subjective, error-prone and relies heavily on the alertness of the operator. The operator performs this task by touch only, based on the vibration transferred from the shroud pipe via the manipulator boom.

The computerised Slag Detection System (SDS) is a method that measures the vibration of the shroud manipulator arm by using a tri-axial accelerometer (Fig 4). The level of vibration in the shroud manipulator arm is remarkably different for slag and steel flowing through it. The signals from the accelerometer are sent to a signal

conditioner, data acquisition system and finally to a server where the slag detection algorithm resides. When there is a change in vibration due to vortex formation or slag flow through the shroud, it is instantly recognised by the computer software and the appropriate action taken.

Conclusions Slag detection systems, need to be used in conjunction with an appropriate slag stopping device and BOF converter tilt drive automation for optimum output.

In continuous casting, a shroud vibration ladle-to-tundish slag detection system needs to be integrated with an IR camera focused on the steel in the tundish and a suitably designed ladle slide gate stopping mechanism.

Additional safety equipment, such as pyrometers and redundant tilting-angle monitoring, support the functionality by satisfying the safety requirements in automatic operation. Automatic slagging of the BOF into the slag pot car may be added as an option, offering simultaneous positioning of the slag pot transfer car and converter tilting angle. The combination of measurements and detection systems arranged on the BOF provides fully automatic tapping with reduced slag carry-over.

Consequently, slag detection systems at the BOF and caster have become integral parts of new steel melting shops world over. Even the old shops are getting such technologies retrofitted to achieve quality and productivity parameters. �

Acknowledgements Continuous encouragement and support from the management of Research & Development Centre for Iron and Steel (RDCIS), Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) in preparing this paper as well as permission to publish this paper are thankfully acknowledged.

Bibliography 1. Gergely Takács, Karol Ondrejkovič, Gabriel Hulkó ‘A low-cost non-invasive slag detection system for continuous casting’ Science Direct IFAC Papers Online 50-1 (2017) 438–445 2. Zimiao Zhang, Qiu Li and Liwen Yan ‘Slag Detection System Based on Infrared Thermo-graph in Steelmaking Industry’, 2015 Bentham Science Publishers 3. Zimiao Zhang, Liu Bin , Yongxiang Jiang, ‘Slag detection system based on infrared temperature measurement’ Elsevier Optik 125 (2014) 1412–1416

www.steeltimesint.com

13/11/2018 14:54:25

Eradicate inclusion problems in steel The comprehensive OES inclusion analysis solution: ARL iSpark with Spark-DAT Software Suite For many steel grades, controlling non-metallic inclusions is crucial for the smooth running of production process, and to guarantee targeted steel properties. The Thermo Scientific™ ARL iSpark™ OES Metals Analyzer performs inclusion analysis simultaneously with elemental analysis, enabling real-time control of inclusions for hundreds of samples analyzed every day in a steel production.

The Spark-DAT Software Suite includes all the on- and off-line software modules and features needed for inclusion analysis, analytical method development and set-up, as well as in-depth investigation, control and reporting of inclusions. The ARL iSpark with Spark-DAT Software Suite is the perfect solution to prevent cost and quality problems caused by inclusions.

Discover more at thermofisher.com/ispark © 2018 Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. All rights reserved. All trademarks are the property of Thermo Fisher Scientific and its subsidiaries unless otherwise specified.

46

PERSPECTIVES: THERMO FISHER SCIENTIFIC

“China is our single largest market” Whether it’s field-based, lab-based or line-based, Thermo Fisher Scientific’s analytical solutions are very popular in the global steel industry. Dr. Ravi Yellepeddi* answers our challenging questions 1. How are things going at THERMO FISHER SCIENTIFIC? Is the steel industry keeping you busy?

Yes, steel and other non-ferrous metals industries have been very dynamic and we have been taking full advantage of this favourable market condition with our leadership position in this industry.

We see increased use and demand for our analytical instruments from the aluminium industry, which supports, to some extent, the above statement.

8. “…any hint of doubt when it comes to predictions of climate doom is evidence of greed, stupidity, moral turpitude or psychological derangement.” This is Bret Stephens writing in The Wall Street Journal. Do you sympathise with his view?

Sure, we cannot deny the impact of these industries on our environment and climate, but these metal producers are also (along with cement producers) the earliest movers to reduce the impact by improving the processes and by near-100% recyclability, unlike other industries which are only beginning to take the responsibility.

2. What is your view on the current state of the global steel industry?

Globally, the steel industry has been recovering from a lacklustre period two to three years ago, thanks to improved commodity prices, increased demand and synchronised economic growth that we see in both developed and developing parts of the world.

3. In which sector of the steel industry does THERMO FISHER SCIENTIFIC mostly conduct its business?

We provide the most comprehensive portfolio of products to the steel industry.

Our instruments and solutions are used across the entire iron and steel process flow: from raw material through the blast furnace/steel furnace operations to the downstream hot/cold rolling mills. We broadly classify our analytical solutions for the steel industry as field-based, lab-based and line-based.

4. Where are you busiest at present?

China is our single largest market where nearly 50% of the world’s steel is produced.

We have also been busy in North America, parts of EMEA and other parts of the APAC region.

5. Where do you stand on the aluminium versus steel argument?

reused at different levels of usage. On the flip side, they both require energyintensive production processes. Overall, I feel that it is “unfair” to compare the environmental impact when we know that steel production is much higher than that of aluminium!

6. “Automobiles will continue to be predominantly steel.” Right or wrong?

I think both the metals – Fe and Al – will continue to play an important role in the automotive and related industries. There is no doubt that the development of electric vehicles will ask for lighter and smarter materials to build with; and in this sense, there could be more opportunities for aluminium-based products, but not to the extent of replacing steel altogether.

9. Are steel producers expecting THERMO FISHER SCIENTIFIC to offer them solutions in terms of energy efficiency and sustainability?

Absolutely yes. We are glad to be part of various discussion groups and efforts by major steel producers to improve the use of raw materials, increase process efficiency and enhance the quality of the final steel products by “exploiting” various analytical techniques across the workflow.

7. Is aluminium greener than steel?

Not sure if one is greener than the other!

On the positive side, both iron and aluminium can be qualified as “pseudocyclical” industries (some call them “circular economies”) in the sense that both these metals are predominantly recycled and

10. How quickly has the steel industry responded to ‘green politics’?

This really depends on geography. Some regions have been fast enough to respond with fundamental structural changes over years, while other regions are catching up only now. There were also significant

* Senior director, market development, elemental and structural analysis, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Switzerland November/December 2018

Perspectives.indd 1

www.steeltimesint.com

14/11/2018 12:24:20

PERSPECTIVES: THERMO FISHER SCIENTIFIC

efforts to implement different processes such as DRI (Direct Reduced Iron) with less environmental impact as opposed to conventional blast furnaces for iron production. It is in the interest of all the stake holders that the steel industry does not lose the battle globally.

11. Where does THERMO FISHER SCIENTIFIC lead the field?

Our company leads the analytical technologies for the steel industry in many areas of applications. We are constantly improving our products and their performance in response to the steel industry’s current and future requirements with a view to provide value-added solutions. As you know, in steel production, every second counts! The faster the analytical response time, the better and more economical it is for steel production.

We are, therefore, improving the speed of analysis and thereby the productivity by offering state-of-the-art XRF, OES and laboratory automation systems.

47

trade barriers and protective measures in some parts of the world are examples of this reaction. China has also realised that it will not be able to continue producing steel in the same way and has already started structural reforms. There have been significant consolidations and mergers of big steel groups in China and the same is happening in Europe. What is clearly at stake with this situation is the profitability of some of the steel groups outside of China who are most impacted due to tougher environmental regulations, excess capacity generated out of China and unequal labour conditions and state support.

steel industry to the global situation.

15. What is your experience of the Chinese steel industry?

The Chinese steel industry had the opportunity to take advantage of the most modern and advanced technology drawn out of the steel industry in Europe, Japan, South Korea and North America. We have been in the forefront of this over the past 15 years and have seen tremendous progress by Chinese steel companies to raise quality standards, productivity and reliability. In recent years, the Chinese have implemented automation solutions and advanced analytical methods to produce and control product quality. There is also a significant effort in dealing with the environmental challenges. Overall, we note a continuous adjustment of the Chinese

17. How optimistic are you for the global steel industry going forward?

I am reasonably optimistic that the steel industry is better prepared now than in the past to withstand the economic cycles, thanks to many structural reforms already in place. The environmental challenges will continue to put pressure on the industry.

There are, of course, other geo-political constraints that could adversely impact the industry in the short-term.

16. Where is the most innovation in terms of production technologies?

There is room for improvement across the process. It makes sense, however, to focus on the most energy-intensive processes to improve or innovate. For example, direct analysis of the hot metal or real-time elemental or structural analysis (noninvasive). Primary and secondary stages need more attention with faster (preferably real-time) and continuous analytical knowledge to optimise the process and increase yield while reducing energy consumption.

12. How important is Industry 4.0?

Digital science will play an important role in the predictability, optimisation and productivity of the entire process from raw materials to the final product. Automation will become more “democratised” across the steel plants for increased productivity, reliability and resource utilisation.

13. How do you view THERMO FISHER SCIENTIFIC’s development over the short-to-medium term?

We want to continue our innovation and development efforts to address the industry’s challenges: by providing analytical solutions to increase energy and material efficiency, reduce the yield losses in steelmaking, continuous casting, or rolling; reduce quality costs by minimising the amount of rework or scrapped material; and help the industry to become greener and cleaner.

14. How should we react to China?

China is a dominant player in this industry and I think all other steel producers have realised the impact of their production capacity for more than 10 years. Some steel groups have adopted or opted to become specialised and others have tried to protect their domestic markets. Recent www.steeltimesint.com

Perspectives.indd 2

18. If you possessed a superpower, how would you improve things?

I would make the global steel industry ecologically exemplary while contributing to the economic development of less fortunate regions of the world. � November/December 2018

14/11/2018 12:24:26

48

HISTORY

Nasmyth’s super tool Edinburgh-born Alexander Nasmyth, an engineer, philosopher, artist and inventor, is widely credited for inventing the steam hammer, says Harry Hodson* BY the 1830s the building of the national rail network in the United Kingdom was well under way, and Manchester would be the first to benefit from this. The city was connected to the port of Liverpool shortly after the Rainhill Trials of 1830, with a main terminus for both passengers and freight in the city centre as early as 1838. Manchester could now trade with the rest of the world and lost no time in doing so. The city was already connected to the outside world by its canal system founded by the Duke of Bridgewater who wanted to improve the transport of coal from his mines in Worsley, a town in the metropolitan borough of the City of Salford, to Manchester. Brindley’s reputation as an engineer had been noted

by Bridgewater and he was taken on as the engineering brains behind the canal system.

But canals were outdated and the railways required a new breed of engineer familiar

with the making of iron and steel and putting it to use.

A super tool At the time, there was already dozens of towns scattered within a 15-mile radius of the city centre. Each of these towns provided employment for hundreds of iron workers to manufacture and service machines for the coal and cotton industries.

The coming of the railways meant they had to up their game. Scottish born engineer James Nasmyth (1808-1890) decided to move South to be nearer to the seat of the Industrial Revolution. Nasmyth came from a comfortable middle-class Edinburgh family – his father, Alexander Nasymth, was a landscape and portrait painter, and was educated in science, art, and astronomy – but he was also a practical man whose main interest was in engineering. He settled at Patricroft, near Manchester, and went into partnership to form Nasmyth Gaskell and Co. The site was well chosen, close to the Leeds-Liverpool, and Bridgewater canal system, including the Manchester-Liverpool Railway. In 1839 James Nasmyth was FAMOUS NAMES A. V. Roe & CO. Beyer Peacock Heenan & Froude Newton Heath Ironworks Metropolitan-Vickers

Ford Motor Co. Ferranti Bros.

Vulcan Foundry L Gardner. Patricoft.

Aircraft Locomotives Blackpool Tower Metals Electrical and general engineering Automotive Electrical generators Locomotives Diesel engines

Stephenson’s Rocket will be on display from September 2018 - March 2019 at the Museum of Science and Industry in City Centre, Manchester UK.

credited with the invention of the steam hammer – although there are other claims to this, mainly from the French engineer François Bourdon. The steam hammer was a ‘super tool,’ which quickly replaced the tilt hammer, which could no longer cope with the heavy forgings required in engineering.

By the 1850s the steam hammer was in use throughout the mechanised world, possibly under licence from Nasmyth.

Isambard Kingdom Brunel and Robert Stephenson made their acquaintance with Nasmyth when pile-driving and forging were required for their various projects.

Examples of this include the foundations of Stephenson’s high-level bridge over the River Tyne at Newcastle where the steam hammer was used to drive in the piles. While lesser known than Brunel and Stephenson, James Nasmyth’s name should be placed alongside them as one of the foremost engineers of the 19th century.

He retired aged 48 and set up home in Penshurst, Kent, where he pursued his other interests, which included astronomy. He built his own 20-inch reflecting telescope known as the Nasmyth telescope, or the Nasmyth-Cassegrain or Cassegrain-Nasmyth reflecting telescope. Perhaps it was the demise of Brunel and Stephenson at early ages that prompted him to retire early. He lived to the ripe old age of 82 and is buried in his native Edinburgh.

Vibrant city Manchester is a cosmopolitan and vibrant city whatever your interests. Its shops, cafés, restaurants, theatres, art galleries and museums are easily accessible by using the tram and railway systems. A visit to the museum of Science and Industry is recommended where 19th-21st century exhibits can be seen in well-displayed original surroundings. �

* The author is an iron and steel specialist in the field of the Industrial Revolution www.steeltimesint.com

History.indd 1

13/11/2018 14:55:24

Vacuum St eelDegassi ng wi t hMechani calPumpi ngSyst ems. . .Si nce1997

TheVENTUS™4St ageModul arMechani cal Pumpi ngSy st ems, pr ov ent echnol ogyi nt hest eel i ndust r yf ormor et han 12y ear s, br i ngsi mpor t antadv ant agesf ort heoper at i onandmai nt enanceofast eel degassi ngi nst al l at i on:  Bal ancedl oadonal l t hepumpsi nt hesy st em I mpr ov edcompr essi onr at i oont hedi f f er entst agesoft hepumpi ngsy st em I ncr easedl i f et i mef ort hepumps, gear s, bear i ngs, et c. I ncr easedsy st em r el i abi l i t y I ncr easedef fici encyoft hemechani cal pumpi ngsy st em  Reducedoper at i onal andmai nt enancecost s

www. mt agswi t z er l and. com

Toget herWeDefinet heFut ur eofSt eel Degassi ng

STRONG BRAND LEGACY FPE (Flat Products Equipment) | CMI Metallurgy | M&W | UVK Beugin | CMI Chemline | Heurbel | EFCO (Electrical Furnace Company) REKAM | Stalproekt | CMI Thermline | KAPPA Thermline

INNOVATIVE TECHNOLOGIES

FOR THE METALS INDUSTRY CMI INDUSTRY METALS designs, installs, modernises and services installations and machinery for the steel and non-ferrous industries throughout their whole life cycle in order to improve the economic, technological and environmental performance of this equipment. CMI’s clients benefit from: a unique combination of expertise in engineering, maintenance and the management of international technical projects, a vast geographic and technological scope, and an ability to innovate in accordance with the concrete needs of its customers.

CMI Industry is established in North America, China, Europe, India and Russia. It can also rely on the worldwide network of the CMI Group.

www.cmigroupe.com

Reheating furnaces § Pickling § Acid Regeneration § Cold Rolling Strip Processing (mechanical, chemical & thermal) § Automation D E S I G N | E N G I N E E R I N G | C O M M I S S I O N I N G | T E C H N I C A L A S S I S TA N C E & T R A I N I N G | A F T E R - S A L E S