Overview
ABSTRACT
The "mini-factory" phenomenon is relatively recent. Until the 50s, the expansion of the steel industry was based upon a single transformation process of iron ore in blast furnaces and then in steel mills which increasing yield. The mini-factories transform the steel scrap via electric arc furnaces and rolling, with a yield at first of less than 100,000 tons/year and later more significantly. The mini-factories or the integrated medium size plants producing primary metal or cast iron are more specifically presented in this article.
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Read the articleAUTHOR
-
Jacques ASTIER : Former Director of the French Iron and Steel Research Institute (IRSID)
INTRODUCTION
The phenomenon of "mini-mills" is relatively recent: until the decade beginning in 1950, the expansion of the steel industry was based on :
-
a single scheme:
Iron ore
.
Blast furnace
.
Steelworks
(mainly based on the Martin furnace, but also on the Thomas converter — especially in Western Europe — and then switching to oxygen);
-
steady growth, both in the unit capacities of blast furnaces and steelmaking reactors, and in the plants themselves, rising rapidly to 1 Mt/year, then 5, and now reaching, or even exceeding, 10 Mt/year.
It was against this backdrop that mini-factories gradually sprang up, first in 1950 and then more rapidly thereafter:
-
with the :
Scrap metal
.
Electric arc furnace
.
Lamination
and often...
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Mini-factories
Rise of mini-mills
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