3. Extraction/collection of raw materials and Fabrication of products

Steel is produced from iron ore, one of the most abundant elements on our planet.  However, since it is 100% recyclable, and easily handled and separated from other materials, 42% of the total world crude steel annually produced is made from scrap (recycled material).

Useful link: Recyclable

Its versatility and recyclability mean that, in a rapidly changing world, steel can be used to create new products as tastes and technologies change over time. By recycling steel scrap into new products, today's needs can be met without depleting more primary resources.

Globally, around 80% of all steel that becomes available is reused or recycled in some form. However, because of the duration of its life cycle, which could be hundreds of years, as well as the specificity of some metallurgic formulations, recycled scrap cannot be the only source to meet the rising steel demand.

Over the last fifty years, the consumption of energy required for the production of steel has been reduced by more than 50%.

In the same period, the emissions of CO2 (the most relevant gas for the steel industry among the six greenhouse gases considered in the Kyoto protocol) have been halved1 and dust dispersion has diminished by more than 90%.

The water used by the steel industry is purified and recycled.

The steel production by-products are reused. These by-products are used by the agricultural sector, but they also are beneficially used by the construction industry. An example is blast furnace slag which is used as road stone.  This slag can either by ground for use in cement, crushed and used as an aggregate or palletised and used as a lightweight concrete aggregate.

1 The steel industry is at a point where improvements in production efficiency are reaching theoretical limits: new technologies have to be explored. That's why the The World Steel Association (worldsteel) has launched a large CO2 breakthrough program, called Ulcos (ultra low CO2 steelmaking) project, in which a wide range of technologies with a high potential for reducing CO2 will be examined: carbon lean technologies combined with CO2 sequestration, innovative use of natural gas, biomass and electricity.

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