1. Background and development

Before examining in detail what "classic steel mills" are, and how they evolve, we believe it would be useful to look at them in turn:

• explain how and why these classic factories developed;

• describe their relative evolution in different parts of the world;

• before coming back to them in more detail in the last part of this study (on future prospects), we'd like to point out the various types of integrated plants that currently exist around the world.