Steel Market Research Articles

Isolated Tracheobronchial Hyperkeratosis

SESSION TITLE: Bronchology SESSION TYPE: Case Report Slide PRESENTED ON: Sunday, April 17, 2016 at 02:15 PM - 03:45 PM INTRODUCTION: Airway hyperkeratosis is uncommon and affects upper airway, such as the laryngeal area in most cases. Tracheobronchial involvement is very rarely reported, and here we report a case of isolated tracheobronchial hyperkeratosis. CASE PRESENTATION: An otherwise healthy 32-year-old man presented with recurrent cough, sputum production and intermittent low-grade fever over three years. He had been treated as bronchitis with antibiotics, and the above symptoms could be relieved temporarily. He had a 5 pack year history of smoking and had quit 3 years ago. He worked in an open-air steel market with heavy ground dust pollution. Physical examination revealed no significant abnormalities. His tuberculin skin test and T-spot. TB blood test were both negative. Pseudomonas aeruginosa were seen in sputum cultures. Spirometry showed mild airflow obstruction. Chest CT scan showed no significant abnormalities. Bronchoscopy revealed diffuse white nodules like paving stone changes in the tracheobronchial mucosa with no laryngeal area involvement (Panel A, B and C). The results of tissue stains and cultures for acid-fast bacilli and fungal organisms were negative. Multiple tracheobronchial mucosa biopsy showed squamous cell metaplasia and hyperkeratosis, with no dysplasia or malignancy (Panel D). DISCUSSION: Lower airway hyperkeratosis is very rare and isolated tracheobronchial involvement has not been documented before. The cause of airway hyperkeratosis is not clear and maybe related with chronic inflammatory stimulus, air pollution, inhalation of poisonous gases, occupational dust exposure or trace element deficiency. The tracheobronchial hyperkeratosis may occur as a result of smoking and chronic dust exposure in this patient who maybe genetically predisposed to such lesions. The relationship between chronic airway infection and hyperkeratosis has not been determined. Does chronic airway infection serve as an incentive for hyperkeratosis? Or loss of normal clean function of airway secondary to hyperkeratosis, induced recurrent infection. Tracheobronchial hyperkeratosis should be differentially diagnosed from bronchial tuberculosis and fungus infection. There is no specific treatment for airway hyperkeratosis yet. The primary concern for the management of airway hyperkeratosis is the potential for malignant conversion. The risk is increased by the presence of dysplasia, since increasing severity of dysplasia appears to increase the risk of malignant conversion. Hence close follow-up with surveillance bronchoscopy is ongoing for this subject. CONCLUSIONS: Lower airway hyperkeratosis has no specific clinical characteristics. Broncoscopy with multiple-section histopathological analysis is necessary for accurate diagnosis. Close follow-up is mandatory due to its potential for malignant conversion. Reference #1: Isenberg et al. Institutional and Comprehensive Review of Laryngeal Leukoplakia. Annals of Ototogy, Rhinology & laryngology. 117(l);74-79. DISCLOSURE: The following authors have nothing to disclose: Xiaolei Zhang No Product/Research Disclosure Information

Comparison of different alternative steel technologies: evaluation of case studies for an innovative and sustainable steelwork

In the international steel market, competitiveness is crucial since the market is increasingly complex and dynamic. The steel companies face ever more stringent environmental regulations pushing toward process improvements focused on increasing resource efficiency while keeping economic sustainability. Investing in new and promising technologies when the current equipment and machinery become obsolete or unproductive is a task of utmost importance although not always easy to achieve. In Italy a steelwork located in Piombino produces high steel quality products but is currently undergoing an important revamping and renovation process. The case of the Piombino steelwork is an interesting example of the opportunities faced nowadays by European steel industry in the challenge of increasing global competition. An overview of some combinations among the possible and fruitful commercialized technologies that can be implemented in the specific situation and location of Piombino are presented and analysed. Each alternative technology is briefly depicted as well as some economic and environmental aspects of the possible mix combination.

Modelling and Simulation of the Melting Process in Electric Arc Furnaces—Influence of Numerical Solution Methods

Increasing demands on the steel market are leading to introduction of many technological innovations regarding the electric arc furnaces (EAFs). The area with significant potential is also advanced computer support, based on mathematical models estimating the process values which are not continuously measured, such as chemical compositions and temperatures of the steel, slag and gas. To achieve optimal process control using EAF models, two crucial characteristics of the later are required, i.e. sufficient accuracy and calculation speed, both affected by selection of the modelling approach and ordinary differential equation (ODE) solving method. The aim of this paper is to investigate the estimation accuracy and calculation speed of an EAF model, evaluated by three solving methods, i.e. fixed step Euler, variable step Runge‐Kutta and Backward Differentiation Formula (BDF). The results are showing that the selection of the ODE solver has an enormous effect on simulation outcome. All three methods proved to be appropriate to obtain the estimated process values; however, achieving a desired level of precision leads to significant deviations in computational speeds. Thus, when aiming for optimal model based EAF control, proper selection of the ODE solver is as important as the modelling approach, but too often neglected.

Steel Minimills, Part II

Abstract From 1988 to 2008, the minimill industry added 25 million tons annual capacity—25% of the total U.S. steel market.

Development and Experimental Validation of Composite Press Brake–Formed Modular Steel Tub Girders for Short-Span Bridges

AbstractThis paper is focused on the development of modular shallow trapezoidal boxes fabricated from cold-bent structural steel plate using standard mill plate widths and thicknesses. This concept was developed by a technical working group within the Short Span Steel Bridge Alliance of the Steel Market Development Institute (a business unit of the American Iron and Steel Institute), led by the current authors. This working group consists of all stakeholders in the steel bridge industry, including mills, fabricators, service centers, industry trade organizations, universities, and bridge owners. The goal of this project was to develop an innovative and economical modular solution for the short-span steel bridge market. Presented is the methodology used for the design of this system, along with experimental validation of the modular composite girder’s flexural capacity. Using experimentally verified analytical methods, the applicability of AASHTO specifications in computing the flexural capacity of the pro...

Contemplation of global steel industry future using scenario approach

The protracted downturn in global steel market continues deteriorating the steel industry margins. Chronic overcapacity and volatility of raw material prices are the most influential and uncertain factors that shape the profitability of steel producers. These critical uncertainties are laid in the basis for four alternative scenarios of the global steel industry that are described in the paper using narratives and causal diagrams. Scenarios helped to verify a few strategic options, some of which are traditionally used in the industry. The options were tested in scenario “wind tunnel” and were classified depending on their robustness in different scenarios. Analysis highlighted high value-added product development, quasi-vertical integration via supply contracts, and industry cooperation for demolishment of obsolete excess capacities as viable options, which could provide a serious enhancement of steel industry performance in most of the scenarios.

Analysis of the stainless steel market in the EU, China and US using co-integration and VECM

In this work, we analyse the relationship between European domestic prices and the prices prevailing in two major trading regions, China and the USA. We also consider the relationship between prices and the volume of imports into Europe. The analysis seeks to determine two aspects related to pricing in the stainless steel market. It first seeks to determine whether China׳s current standing as the largest worldwide producer of stainless steel is relevant in defining its price. Stemming from the first question, we secondly seek to understand if the European market is simply one component in the global stainless steel market with no significant power in pricing determination. Through a co-integration analysis and the vector error correction model, the estimates suggest that prices in Europe and the US react to at least two of the three long-run relationships, whereas China׳s price reacts only to the long-term relationship with the US. Moreover, results express that China׳s price cause in Granger sense to the European prices, but the reverse relationship does not hold. With respect to European imports, there is a long-run relationship between import volume and Chinese and German prices. The German short-run price elasticity is larger than one, and import demand tends to be income elastic. The study primarily concludes that European producers of stainless steel are price followers, and that the volume of imports into Europe is affected by long-run relations of relative prices.

Analysis of African Iron and Steel Market for Wuhan Iron and Steel Corporation (WISCO)’s Possible Entry: Preliminary Screening and Final Selection Statistical Scoring Model

This paper described the second part of my PhD research project where African Iron and Steel Market was investigated to support the decision of the entry of Wuhan Iron and Steel Corporation (WISCO) into African Market. The data used are the same as previous study, observations of macroeconomic variables, such as GDP per capita, the index of consumer prices, import iron, the real effective exchange rate, the number of urban population, imports and exports total made on 19 African countries for a period that spans from 2008 to 2012. The countries concerned are: Algeria, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Egypt, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritius, Morocco, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Seychelles, South Africa, Tanzania, Togo, Tunisia, and Zambia. The empirical study in this paper is divided into two parts: the first part is preliminary screening and the second part is the final selection statistical scoring model. In the first part, the preliminary screening was made by ranking the panel data by political stability variable as it was the main decision criteria of WISCO’s international market selection into the African Iron and Steel Market. We sorted our 19 Africa countries for our study by political stability and absence of violence/terrorism percentile value 2013 from the largest to smallest and selected the first 10th rank. The 10 countries that were selected to the next step of our study from our preliminary screening were: Mauritius, Seychelles, Zambia, South Africa, Senegal, Tanzania, Malawi, Mozambique, Togo and Morocco. In the second part of the empirical findings, we analyzed African Iron and Steel Market following the steps of our final selection statistical inverse coefficient of variation scoring model. We started by analyzing statistical inverse coefficient of variation of every variable in the demand side, in supply side, and then, we analyzed the final score made by every country and suggested a final selection. Our analysis of the final score concluded that the five countries that would be suggested to Wuhan Iron and Steel Corporation (WISCO) were: first, Togo with a final score of 70.20, second, Tanzania with a final score of 18.63, third, Morocco with a final score of 15.58, fourth, Senegal with a final score of 14.57, and fifth, Mozambique with a final score of 13.68. WISCO then can choose from these five suggested countries to enter into African Market.

Structural Evolution of Pearlite in Steels with Different Carbon Content under Drastic Deformation during Cold Drawing

Steel wires, under severe cold drawing deformation, develop high strength. High carbon steel (C>0.80%) has a great demand in the steel market because of the extremely high strength (5-6GPa). For this reason it is relevant to increase the knowledge on the structural evolution and deformation mechanisms involved during wiredrawing process due to their critical applications, among which we can mention wires for: bridges, cranes and tire cord. The mechanical behaviour aptitude is determined by torsion test. When the fracture surface is flat, the wire is apt. On the opposite, an irregular fracture surface (delamination) means poor mechanical properties.This paper presents a comparative study on steel wires with different carbon contents (0.40% C and 0.80% C) in order to compare the structural evolution at high deformation and to verify the impact of carbon content on the pearlite deformation and cementite stability. Samples tested under torsion with and without delamination problems, were selected. The microstructural study was carried out applying light and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Finally, the structural information was correlated with results of differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and thermodynamic properties obtained by Fact Sage simulation.The structural study verified the presence of curling phenomenon in both steels grades, with different carbon content. The effect of the ferrite on deformation mechanisms during wiredrawing was clearly visualized. It was possible to verify differences (∼ 26%) in the interlaminar spacing (λ) of the pearlite between wires that present normal and delaminated behaviour under torsion test. The ductility loss (in the delaminated wire) is promoted by multiple causes: higher interlaminar spacing, high nitrogen content in the product and the presence of dynamic strain aging, which is promoted by cementite destabilization and the formation of ɛ carbide.

The Egyptian State of Competition: The Steel Market Case Study

This paper examines the state of competition in the Egyptian context focusing on the steel market and Ezz Steel as a case study. It provides a comparative study between the US, European, Egyptian antitrust, and competition laws, to attain deeper understanding of the Egyptian competition policies such as tariffs, dumping fees and market entry restrictions, if any, were taken into consideration. It was established that Ezz Steel dominated nearly 65 percent of the market as well as being one of the two largest importers and producers of pellets. An estimation of social transfers has been conducted to estimate how Ezz Steel benefited from its position. A number of recommendations dealing with amending the Egyptian competition law as well as Ezz’s Steel position are provided.

Chinese steel market in the post-futures period

We expand the research on commodity futures markets into a newly developed market: steel futures. We examine the most liquid steel futures market in the world, the Shanghai Futures Exchange, which counts for nearly all of the global trading activity. Our findings suggest that following the launch of the steel futures, steel has become a more “financial” product. We first explore the relationship between the spot and futures prices. Futures market finds its place in the price discovery process where the spot market continues to maintain its prominence. We also find evidence indicating that volatility in the spot market has decreased during the post-futures period. Our findings suggest that regulators should consider launching the steel futures so as to enhance the completeness of the market while also taking great care to preserve the link between the physical and the financial market.

Implementacja zmian w przepisach o VAT w przedsiębiorstwie branży hutniczej

Article presents the importance of the changes in legal regulations regarding the value added tax in force from October 1 st 2013. The current legal status has been summarized along with the description of reverse charge and joint liability. It has been identified that the reason for introducing these changes was to reduce the losses from tax fraud in the steel market. The process of adaptation to the changes in the legal environment has been exemplified by a representative company based in Poland. It has been determined that the changes introduced in the VAT Act and Tax Ordinance improved the competitive position of the analysed company.

Steel market and global trends of leading geo-economic players

The aim of this study is twofold: (a) to report a flow analysis based on trends of steel across some leading geo-economic players; (b) to analyse the long-term relationship between steel consumption and economic growth by the sensitivity of the demand of steel consumption to a change in the national income. Results show that China (CHN) and Italy (ITA) have higher average annual growth of the production of crude steel (CHN 9.75%; ITA 0.83%), steel crude use equivalent (CHN 8.37%; ITA 1.95%) and steel use finished products (CHN 9.38%; ITA 1.65%), whereas the USA have higher average annual growth of imports (13.23%) and China has higher exports of semi- finished/finished steel products (20.38%). The estimated average elasticity of the consumption of steel on national income per countries, based on unidirectional causality that runs from national income to steel consumption, shows de facto positive values, except in UK economy.

La vicenda di ILVA e i rischi per il sistema industriale italiano

The paper analyses developments at ILVA’s steelmaking plant in Taranto. Industrial policies designed to promote the industrialization of Southern Italy, favoured by the DC (Christian Democrats), were behind the decision, taken in 1959, to build a green-field, integrated cycle, steel plant in Taranto. The plant was built by Italsider, a large State-owned steel company of the IRI conglomerate. However, at the time, the market for steel in Southern Italy was very small - even today it remains limited. On the other hand, the output of the Taranto plant was substantial, while successive plant enlargements increased it further to between six and eight million metric tons per year of mainly coil and plate. Most of this output was, and still is, shipped to Northern Italy for reprocessing in other ILVA plants. Therefore, the potential closure of the Taranto plant would be a major blow to not just the local economy, but to Italian industry as a whole. The article covers ILVA’s privatization in 1995, leading to its acquisition by the Riva family, former mini-mill owners, now major European steel producers; it analyses the environmental problems that have since come to light, specifically the plant’s high levels of pollution, their negative impact on nearby urban Taranto, and its outdated units, badly in need of modernization. In 2012, Italian prosecuting magistrates had no option but to impound the entire hot melting shop. The Italian government then passed a law obliging ILVA to implement the latest EU environmental regulations in an effort to prevent the plant from being shut down.

Challenges facing the US steel industry

Badri Narayanan, senior research analyst with Beroe, Inc., examines the impact of various factors on the US steel market and the implications for consumers in the short-to-medium term.

Present Status of Stainless Steel Industry in India & it’s Future Prospects

Indian Stainless Steel Development Association (ISSDA) was formed in 1989 with the explicit objective of diversifying and expanding the domestic market of stainless steel. At that time, more than 90% of stainless used in the country was kitchenware but over the last two decades, stainless steel has undergone tremendous changes in perception and its increasingly growing end use application in areas such as architecture building & construction, automotive transport, process and engineering. The world production of stainless steel in 2012 is estimated at 35.4 million tonne. Asia has strongly emerged as both the worlds largest stainless steel producer and user. Among countries, China dominates the world production of stainless steel accounting for almost 45% share. However, India has outpaced global growth rates consistently over last 10 years with its stainless steel melt production in 2012 reaching almost 3 million tonnes to propel the country as 4th largest producer after China, Europe and Japan. The potential growth of stainless steel in India is enormous, considering the fact that the per capita consumption at 1.9kg is still much lower than world average of almost 4.85kg. The per capita consumption of stainless steel has strong co-relation with per capita GDP and India is expected to more than double its per capita income over next 10 years. In addition increased urbanization, high demographic dividends and governments manufacturing policy seeking to enhance the share of manufacturing in GDP to 25% within a decade augurs well for the future growth of the stainless steel in India. This paper focuses on the growth story of Indian Stainless Steel industry and its market sector vis-à-vis world and further explores on the strategy to increase the consumption domestically considering the fact that world is going through recession cycles resulting in excessive capacity especially China posing a major challenge to Indian Stainless industry. Keywords: Stainless Steel, Indian Industry, Growth Prospects, Present Status

Landmark Events in the Welding of Stainless Steels

This lecture presents the authors personal views on the landmark events that have strongly affected the welding of stainless steels over their lifetime. Although 1913 is commonly recognized as the birth of stainless steels with the commercialization of the martensitic alloy of Harry Brearly and the austenitic alloy of Eduard Maurer and Benno Straus, the story can be considered to begin as long ago as 1797 with the discovery of chromium by Klaproth and Vauquelin, and the observation by Vauquelin in 1798 that chromium resists acids surprisingly well. From the 1870s onwards, corrosion resisting properties of iron-chromium alloys were known. One might mark the first iron-chromium-nickel constitution diagram of Maurer and Strauss in 1920 as a major landmark in the science of welding of stainless steels. Their diagram evolved until the outbreak of World War II in Europe in 1939, and nominally austenitic stainless steel weld metals, containing ferrite that provided crack resistance, were extensively employed for armor welding during the war, based on their diagram. Improved diagrams for use in weld filler metal design and dissimilar welding were developed by Schaeffler (1947-1949), DeLong (1956-1973) and the Welding Research Council (1988 and 1992). Until about 1970, there was a major cost difference between low carbon austenitic stainless steels and those austenitic stainless steels of 0.04% carbon and more because the low carbon grades had to be produced using expensive low carbon ferro-chromium. Welding caused heat affected zone sensitization of the higher carbon alloys, which meant that they had to be solution annealed and quenched to obtain good corrosion resistance. In 1955, Krivsky invented the argon-oxygen decarburization process for refining stainless steels, which allowed low carbon alloys to be produced using high carbon ferro-chromium. AOD became widely used by 1970 in the industrialized countries and the cost penalty for low carbon stainless steel grades virtually vanished, as did the need to anneal and quench stainless steel weldments. Widespread use of AOD refining of stainless steels brought with it an unexpected welding problem. Automatic welding procedures for orbital gas tungsten arc welding of stainless steel tubing for power plant construction had been in place for many years and provided 100% penetration welds consistently. However, during the 1970s, inconsistent penetration began to appear in such welds, and numerous researchers sought the cause. The 1982 publication of Heiple and Roper pinpointed the cause as a reversal of the surface tension gradient as a function of temperature on the weld pool surface when weld pool sulfur became very low. The AOD refining process was largely responsible for the very low sulfur base metals that resulted in incomplete penetration. The first duplex ferritic-austenitic stainless steel was developed in 1933 by Avesta in Sweden. Duplex stainless steels were long considered unweldable unless solution annealed, due to excessive ferrite in the weld heat-affected zone. However, in 1971, Joslyn Steel began introducing nitrogen into the AOD refining of stainless steels, and the duplex stainless steel producers noticed. Ogawa and Koseki in 1989 demonstrated the dramatic effect of nitrogen additions on enhanced weldability of duplex stainless steels, and these are widely welded today without the need to anneal. Although earlier commercial embodiments of small diameter gas-shielded flux cored stainless steel welding electrodes were produced, the 1982 patent of Godai and colleagues became the basis for widespread market acceptance of these electrodes from many producers. The key to the patent was addition of a small amount of bismuth oxide which resulted in very attractive slag detachment. Electrodes based on this patent quickly came to dominate the flux cored stainless steel market. Then a primary steam line, welded with these electrodes, ruptured unexpectedly in a Japanese power plant. Investigations published in 1997 by Nishimoto et al and Toyoda et al, among others, pinpointed the cause as about 200 ppm of bismuth retained in the weld metal which led to reheat cracking along grain boundaries where the Bi segregated. Bismuth-free electrode designs were quickly developed for high temperature service, while the bismuth-containing designs remain popular today for service not involving high temperatures.

Seismic Performance Study on Buckling-Restrained Brace

According to hot-rolled Q235 steel, four specimens of Buckling-restrained Brace of two sections and two composed methods were designed for Chinese steel market. The paper conducted the low-cyclical loading tests to detect the seismic performance of Buckling-restrained Brace. The force-deformation loops, the tangent stiffness and the equivalent damping ratio were studied. It is proved that the force-deformation loops of BRB are stable, plump and symmetrical. The equivalent stiffness and damping ratio are unaffected by steel variety and section form. Double angle steel core segments welded or no does not affect the interoperability, stiffness, ductility, energy consumption of BRB, and the collaborative is only associated with the relative stiffness of steel core and pipe.

Reducing the cost of ballast tank corrosion: an economic modeling approach

One of the most relevant problems in ship construction and maintenance nowadays concerns the corrosion in the double hull space ballast tanks of modern merchant vessels. On the one hand, there is a general consensus that the economic life span of such a vessel depends primarily upon the corrosion state of its ballast tanks, while on the other hand, the position of these tanks, squeezed between the outer hull and the loading tanks, makes routine inspection and maintenance almost impossible.Today, ship's ballast tanks are usually constructed in grade A steel and protected with a standard epoxy coating, backed up with sacrificial zinc anodes. Such a construction has been applied without significant alterations for many years. However, the objective of this economic study is to compare this construction method with some feasible alternatives. The considered alternatives are: (1) an increase of the scantlings, eliminating the necessity to replace corroded steel but diminishing the cargo carrying capacity of the ship, (2) application of the novel and more durable TSCF25 coating (3), the use of corrosion resistant steel in ship construction or (4) a standard PSPC15 coating combined with lifetime lasting aluminum sacrificial anodes. After running each alternative through a cost model including an extensive sensitivity analysis, it is concluded that the durable coating and the use of lifetime lasting aluminum anodes are bound to improve the actual basic tank concept. Corrosion resistant steel becomes attractive depending upon the evolution of the international steel market.

European steel market 2012

European steel market 2012