3. Cutting opportunities in the steel industry

The possibilities outlined in the previous paragraph lead to interesting diagrams in which upstream and downstream operations can be separated geographically. The two dashed lines in figure 1 clearly show the two main options:

• firstly, the classic cut-off separating the production of semi-finished products (slabs, blooms and billets) from their rolling. This is a classic separation between steel producers and rolling mills or relaminators. However, with the development of the continuous lines mentioned, in particular from the steel mill to the hot-rolled mills, it seems that this opportunity is not destined for great expansion, but rather to be a transitional...