Snapshot of Global Refractory Activity — 2015

Abstract

This paper shows the trend in steel production worldwide, and in China, from 2000 to 2015 (projected). The revenue of RHI AG from the steel industry is shown to provide an actual comparison with the trend in steel production. A general overview of refractories activities and research worldwide is presented, mainly focused on the major steelmaking countries (China, Japan, India, Europe, United States) — the intent is to give a general sampling of the current popular topics. It is not a detailed survey, given the space limitation, but hopefully it provides a decent overview of the broad scope of refractories activities, R&D topics, various issues/concerns, and maybe suggests some ideas that are worthy of further consideration.