The Arcelor plant in Dunkerque depends on external coke for one third of its total coke consumption. A global approach has been carried out:
To assess the effect of coke properties on the blast furnace performance. To specify the requested coke properties. 
Appropriate coke characteristics have been defined, aiming at high blast furnace productivity (63t/m2/d), at high PCI rate (210kg/thm for all three blast furnaces) and at low consumption of large coke (230kg/thm).

Aceralia blast furnace A suffered a 28-days emergency repair in September 2004, due to accelerated wear of the hearth walls and severe damage of the cast iron staves at the bosh area. Considering the shortage of supplies, Aceralia resorted to non conventional repair methods in order to prolong the campaign by one year, until full relining: small format carbon bricks and carbon ramming mass for the hearth and tapholes and steel staves at the bosh.

Standard EAF operate with a large amount or air ingress (on the order of 30 000 Nm3 for 150 t of steel). This air is at ambient temperature thus, the nitrogen content and the non-reactive oxygen are only heated through the furnace and exit with the fumes at high temperature (1000°C). This brings about significant thermal losses. Reference and airtight trials were carried out with the 6-t EAF of Arcelor Research for assessing the gains related to airtight furnace operation.

Transverse cracking may occur in high strength low alloy CC slabs. This phenomenon is associated to a hot ductility trough resulting from intergranular ferrite that forms at the beginning of the γ-α transformation. Sumitomo has developed a hot tensile machine and a unique slab surface microstructure control process to improve hot ductility. The process based on controlled accelerated secondary cooling has been successfully implemented on Kashima n°2 caster.

Medium-slab casting combines all of the benefits of conventional thick-slab casting and some of the benefits from thin-slab casting. The medium-slab caster incorporates the proven equipment design, operational aspects and automation features from conventional casting.

The features of dynamic transformation for grain refinement of low carbon steels are presented and representative results of trial hot strip productions are reported. Laboratory experiments have established that dynamic transformation occurs in under-cooled austenite under suitable deformation conditions. Trial production results showed that utilizing the dynamic transformation concept, grain refinement of ferrite is feasible in commercial hot strip mills: a ferrite grain size of 2~3 μm can be obtained, along with various controlled second phases.

The origins of environmental issues are presented with an analysis of their influence on French regulation for the building sector. The environmental advantages afforded by steel are described for all steps of the building life, design, construction, service, dismantling, along with the essential aspects of steel recycling and steel making.