International interest in stainless solutions

A British Stainless Steel Association product story

Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team Apr 10, 2003

Delegates from France, Germany, Belgium, Finland, Italy and Switzerland were among the 145 who attended the "Stainless solutions for a sustainable future" Conference last week.

Delegates from France, Germany, Belgium, Finland, Italy and Switzerland were among the 145 who attended the "Stainless solutions for a sustainable future" Conference, organised last week by the British Stainless Steel Association.

Kari Saarinen, the Executive Vice-President, Group Marketing and Technology of AvestaPolarit, in his welcoming address at the Magna Science Adventure Centre in Rotherham, highlighted how stainless steel met the UK Government's following four objectives for sustainable development.

Stainless steel, Saarinen confirmed, had shown remarkable and sustained growth over a prolonged period, with world production rising from a 1950 figure of one million tonnes to nearly 20 million tonnes, a compound annual growth rate of almost 6%, outperforming competing materials such as aluminium, copper and carbon steel.

The material itself offered a unique combination of properties which allowed stainless steel to be used in all types of applications.

Another very important factor had been the result of aggressive cost reductions and technological advancements.

He commented: "We can show that the long-term trend is down, by following the conversion margin (the gap between selling price and raw material costs) which has been falling by 2% pa for more than 20 years".

Saarinen confirmed that AvestaPolarit 's vision was to be the 'best in stainless' with a strong commitment to basic rights, such as safety in the workplace and principles of fairness and equality for all employees.

He went on to state that better and more appropriate training in the stainless industry would help maintain future growth.

The increasing use of the BSSA's 'stainless steel specialist course' could facilitate such a culture of constant improvement.

Saarinen illustrated how AvestaPolarit had adopted an environmental policy that guided the group in all aspects of its operation, in particular reducing harmful emissions during stainless steel production.

He confirmed that more than Eur 100 million will be spent in connection with the 'project double' investment in Tornio, Finland helping to make this plant, not only the world's largest single production facility, but also one of the cleanest.

One of the most important features of stainless steel, confirmed Saarinen, was its long life.

He said "Just as important is that stainless steel is 100% recyclable with each new melt often containing more than 70% scrap.

However steel production is an energy intensive process and whilst there is great focus at the moment on renewable energy sources, even more important is the intelligent use of energy.

The steel industry has worked hard to reduce energy consumption for many years but this has not been as well advertised as it should have been and so now, when energy saving is the new vogue, we have the task of convincing governments that we have done much already".

Saarinen went on to reiterate that the life cycle cost benefits would continue to encourage the increasing use of stainless steel and should ensure growth above underlying production indices.

He concluded, "However, the growth will also depend on close co-operation of all the players in the industry working together.

The international development bodies such as the International Steel Forum and Euro Inox, together with the national bodies such as the BSSA have a vital part to play.

We can with justification agree that stainless steel is a material with a sustainable future".

Barrie Cheetham, Chairman of the BSSA in his summary at the end of the formal conference programme commented, "Today we focussed on sustainable development as an issue.

Often this is taken to mean we should give up some of our comforts today for the sake of possible future benefits.

What we need is an industry which delivers more long-term benefits without unreasonable costs.

The stainless-steel industry offers just that".