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Show COMBUSTION PROBLEMS IN THE STEEL INDUSTRY James D. Wilde North American Manufacturing Company Cleveland, Ohio, USA THE PROBLEMS OF the steel industry are extremely complex. It is an industry that has been highly capital and labor intensive, requiring substantial capital to maintain equipment and to replace equipment as new technology becomes available. The steel industry is broken into two distinct groups, mini/midi mills and integrated mills. The mini/midi mills generally melt scrap in electric furnaces to produce their raw steel while the integrated mills utilize coke ovens, blast furnaces and usually oxygen steel vessels to produce the raw steel product. The mini mills have in the main concentrated their efforts in the manufacture of bar products and small structural shapes while the integrated mills have produced this same product range but in addition have produced heavy structural shapes, rail and flat rolled product in the form of plate and strip. The integrated mills have felt severe competition from the mini mills in bar and rod product ranges and now see a potential threat in flat rolled product also. Many of the mini mills are relatively modern facilities with much less labor intensive operations than the integrated mills. Since much of their primary metal I making plant and equipment is smaller, ; it is relatively easier and less costly : to maintain efficient operation of all equipment components than is the case in an integrated facility. In the 1950's, '60's, and early '70's high production was the order of the day. Fuel economy was largely overlooked because of low fuel cost in the United States and all too little attention was paid to manning and personnel costs both in the mill and in administration and service functions. Pro- .fits in the industry were reasonable with the result that trimming of excess operating costs was ignored. 13 In the 1970's considerable pressure was brought to bear on the steel industry by environmental agencies to "clean up their act" which placed considerable financial demand on the industry without contributing to quality of product, production rates or reduced cost of operation. In this same period any increases in steel pricing met substantial re-sistance from both goverI~ent and private industry. In the early 1980's a deep depression hit the steel industry because of high imports and lack of domestic demand which resulted in the closing of a number of plant facilities, massive layoffs and substantial cuts in cash flow. Where new or improved facj.lities were planned the need arose to rethink these plans, with the result that, many of these facility changes have been either postponed or cancelled. .The steel industry has been criticized for not maintaining its technical leadership and for not maintaining plant and equipment that permit it to be competitive in world markets. Advancements in technology have made replacement of facilities essential at a much faster rate than has been historically required and at a cost of possibly three (3) to eight (8) times the investment value of the equipment being replaced and long before the depreciation accruals or depreciation life are satisfied. Steel companies have been forced to place their limited assets in plants that showed the best prospective returns while other facilities that desperately required modernization slipped more deeply into obsolescence. Modernization of any facility does not necessarily guarantee its profitability or competitive position. In some instances expansion and modernization have been undertaken, however, the competitive nature of the market combined with the high cost of financing any modernization project can frequently more than offset the potential savings in operating costs. |