The Heavy Industry Sector (Steel and Cement)

The majority of steel produced globally, some 1300Mt in 2007, ¹ is manufactured in a small number of countries, each with access to similar processing technologies. This would suggest that in such a competitive and expanding global market – growing 8.3 per cent between 2005 and 2007 ² – most of the opportunities to reduce operating costs would already be captured and the energy intensity of steel making should be fairly even. However, this does not appear to be the case, with the average energy required to produce a ton of steel in 1995 varying from as little as 18GJ/t in Germany to as much as 37GJ/t in China, suggesting significant opportunity for improvement. ³ According to the International Iron and Steel Institute (IISI) the US has the most energy-efficient steel industry in the world, using an average of only 12GJ per ton of steel produced in 2006. ⁴ Using a baseline of the average energy intensity of the major producers in 1995 of 27.9GJ/t – the year with the most comprehensive data found, as shown in Table 3.1 – the US average equates to an energy productivity improvement of just under 60 per cent.