ABSTRACT
As the ‘post-industrial’ era allegedly supersedes the industrial era in the developed regions of the world, the relative importance of various heavy industrial products declines. Production and consumption per inhabitant of steel, among other products, has gradually declined. The metal is used more efficiently, newer materials replace it, increasing amounts of steel are made from recycled scrap (reducing the amount of pig-
iron needed to make steel), and there are fewer construction projects using steel. On the other hand, the developing regions have been needing more steel in recent decades and should need even more in the next few decades, increasing their output greatly and even exporting some of it to the older industrial countries.
