ABSTRACT
It is very interesting to note, that both in the USA and for many countries, like Belgium, Italy, Finland and others in the EU, the strategy to deal with global overcapacity has been to replace the oxygen furnaces with smaller electric furnaces. The strategy that Laplace Conseil suggests for the steel industry in order to adapt to a persistent supply glut is to shift from oxygen furnaces into electric steelmaking. Laplace Conseil calculates the costs of setting up of an integrated plant at USD 800 to 1200 per tonne of steel produced, while the costs of setting up an electric arc furnace are only USD 150 to 300 per tonne of finished steel. India uses induction furnaces, whose CAPEX costs are even lower. The dependence on the quality of raw materials made induction furnaces depend on sponge iron, where the metallic quality can be controlled by choosing the right kind of iron ore.
