6. Conclusions

In fact, at present, apart from blast furnaces and the COREX process, the other possibilities for producing cast iron (or even "wild steel" or even steel directly) are still at the development stage, even if some of them are already on a very large production scale. The most promising, according to our analysis, are those that eliminate the agglomeration of iron ore and the coking of coal. These are essentially :

• of the two FINEX and HISMELT processes, which will soon be at the 0.8 to 1.5 Mt/year level and, if there are no unexpected technical difficulties at this stage, we'll be able to see whether these processes can deliver the expected savings... ;

• processes based on rotary hearth or multiple hearth furnaces, which will have to show how far they can go in terms of production scale and cost price if they...