The recent meeting “ARAB STEEL SUMMIT 2007” organized by The Arab Iron and Steel Union at Muscat (Oman Sultanate) March 12-14, 2007 afforded the opportunity to analyze:
The development of the Iron and Steel Industry in the Arab States, The main actors behind such developments, The characteristics, both technical and metallurgical of these enterprises.

Energy efficiency in BOF process is related to hot metal and scrap ratio and thus to production capacity potential and specific CO2 emissions. A thermal balance in the fume system, using a selected metrology, can be calculated dynamically and provides a valuable tool for investigating the process parameters that are relevant for optimizing and controlling energy efficiency. The method and first results are presented.

Steel slag is a steel-making industry by-product, currently used for several applications in substitution of non-renewable natural resources (e.g., crushed stone and sand). The major reason for conducting this study at CST ArcelorMittal Brasil was to verify if any of the current uses of LD and NP slag presented significant risks to the environment and/or human health.

The Clean Development Mechanism Project elaboration is reviewed, considering every step from the project design document conception, through validation, the approval by the national authorities and the verification process. The whole development is pioneered by CST ArcelorMittal Brasil, aiming at carbon credits generation and GHG emission reduction. An associated objective is the promotion of sustainable development. The potential of carbon credits generation is estimated to be 440,263 tons of CO2 over a CDM project period of 10 years.

Almost 40% of the 180 conventional hot strip mills in the world were built before 1970. Flexible concepts developed by SMS Demag allow older hot strip mills to be modernized such that they meet today's market requirements in the same way as latest-generation mills. The article presents the principles of the concept phase as well as some examples for successful modernization projects which featured very different requirements.

This paper deals with the influence of thermal strains/stresses caused by braking on the fatigue life of cast nodular iron disc brakes for railway vehicles. The thermal stresses have been experimentally derived and the durability has been assessed for a breaking load spectrum comprising 6000 stop brakings from 200 km/h, 3000 stop brakings from 160 km/h, 1500 stop brakings from 120 km/h and 30000 usual brakings periods slowing down from 90 km/h. The fatigue critical areas have been identified and a redesign of the discs made it possible to afford the requested service life of 3×106 km.

The new approaches that have been recently introduced to account for the potential effects of the PWR water environment on the high cycle thermal fatigue of austenitic stainless steel components have been experimentally assessed under conditions matching the actual in service loadings.