In his presentation at the SteelOrbis Fall '10 Conference and 63rd IREPAS Meeting, Ruggero Alocci from Italian raw material and steel trader company Alocci Rappresentanze Industriali said that scrap availability in advanced countries is likely to narrow in the coming years due to the increased share of steel production using electric arc furnaces, because of lower carbon emissions from this type of production and also due to the more common use of modern technologies, such as continuous casting and new rolling systems, that reduce significantly (over 50 percent in the last 20 years) the amount of "circulating scrap" which arises from the steel production process. According to Mr. Alocci, technological and design improvements in motor vehicle production also reduces scrap production in the auto production process.
On the other hand, regarding scrap consumption, Mr. Alocci pointed out that cold charge in oxygen converters has increased during the years and especially recently due to the increased cost of iron ore. Secondly, in steel production with EAF usage, lower scrap charging per ton of crude steel produced is being observed, especially due to the improved cleanness of the scrap used, technological advances in furnaces and the utilization of continuous casting.
However, differences stand out with developing countries, where the use of scrap of lower quality and cleanness in electric ovens increases the scrap charging per ton produced and the use of cool charging in oxygen converters is limited to only "internal scrap" due to the scarce availability of the more expensive purchased scrap. Obviously in these countries, due to the multiplier effect of high steel production, scrap consumption, even if limited, constitutes very significant volumes, Mr. Alocci remarked.
In industrialized countries, according to Ruggero Alocci, a lower use of scrap per ton of steel produced is noticed, extensively compensated by a greater production of steel by EAFs and current greater use of scrap in production with blast furnaces, while in developing countries, the greater use of scrap is the direct consequence of the growth of steel production.
Considering the flat trend of steel consumption per capita in the mid-400 kg range in advanced economies and the rising steel consumption per capita in developing countries, scrap usage is also expected to grow accordingly.
Under these circumstances, even if it can be said that developing countries are likely to become scrap exporters in the future, like Japan which before was one of the largest scrap importers, in near future scrap availability will decline under the impact of the financial crisis, which does not help to increase scrap production given the reduction in recycling it entails, Mr. Alocci concluded.