3. Current trends

Let's not forget the global stagnation of pig iron production (see table 1 ), with growth in certain regions (notably Asia) and a decline in the "old industrial countries", while direct reduction (i.e. in the solid state) is on the increase in certain regions of the world, notably those rich in natural gas. This leads to the following comments.

• Cast-iron production will see little change, even though there are growing needs:

  • geographically, for developing countries;

  • secondly, in the metallurgical field, by the need for "scrap substitutes" for electric furnaces; here, there is competition between cast iron...