A COMEBACK OF AMERICAN STEEL?

In the 1950s the Siemens-Martin process began to give way to the Basic Oxygen Process, in which pure oxygen is pumped through the molten metal, thus significantly speeding the conver-sion to steel.

But after a reign of close to a century, America's crown as steel king of the world began to rust in the 1970s. Japan was producing steel more cheaply in spite of having to ship it across the Pacific. Government interference (including protection) and union black-mail had left the equipment antiquated, the labor costs bloated, and the EPA bills unpayable. The era of steel is over, said the dein-dustrializers; this is a service society destined to live from com-puterized manicures. Make it from sunbeams and chicken manure, said the gurus of softheaded energy. Ban Jap steel, cried the protectionists.

But there were also those who said let each country do what it does best and let the consumer prosper; why protect a country that lets itself be deindustrialized by insane demagogues? Better still, there were the venturesome, who said let's try a better method. Steel can also be made by an electric-arc furnace (EAF), in which a charge of steel scrap is used an as an electrode with a lightning arc connecting it to the already molten steel in the fur-nace. When it is full, the furnace is tilted and the molten steel often emptied into a ladle refining furnace, which has its own electric arc heat source. "Electric" steel was originally used only by countries where hydropower provided cheap electricity (such as Sweden), but with present technology the cost turns out to be cheaper than BOP steel ($173/ton vs. $190/ton for BOP steel), as well as far more flexible for alloying and for fine-tuning by computer control.

The US now has more than 200 EAF furnaces producing more than 23 million tons of steel per year, an amount expected to rise to 42 million tons in the year 2000. The average US EAF has a shell diameter of 18 ft, a transformer rating of 36MW, and a capacity of 88 tons. [Should there be an accident, these 88 tons of white-hot steel could spill. Would they melt through to China? Ask the ex- perts: Mario, Michael, Ralph, and Jane.]

The main reasons for the cost advantage are the advances in ef-ficiency and in production time over the last two decades: In 1965, it took 630 kWh per ton and 180 minutes to process a charge; in 1985 it took only 430 kWh per ton and 70 minutes.

Moreover, while the BOP process is mature, EAF steel still has far to go. Among the possibilities of the future is scrap melted by the currents induced in it by the magnetic field of surrounding coils; and high-powered lasers modifying the surface properties of steel and other metals.

The comeback of US electric steel illustrates three fundamental points observable in a far more general wider field.

It succeeded in large part through energy conservation, but by advancing the technology rather than through deindustrializa-tion.

The energy conservation was achieved without Congres-sional legislation, either protectionist by Gephardt, or technical by Gee-he's-dumb (D-Conn.); exactly how the steel industry developed the technology without hiring Amory Lovins as a con-sultant is one of the puzzles of our time.

And here is by far the most important point: the advance was achieved by using more electricity, not less. This is a very typical phenomenon for all of US Industry. As pointed out a year ago [AtE Feb 88], virtually all of US industry is "going electric:" it is increasing its consumption per unit produced, not at the expense of efficiency, but at the expense of direct fuels. As shown by M. Mills, the electric power consumption per unit produced has in-creased by up to 50% in the automobile, oil and fabric industries, by 20% to 30% in the chemical and steel industries, and by some-what lesser amounts in the plastics and paper industries. National-ly, this is reflected in two simple figures: while the total US energy consumption since the 1973 Arab oil embargo rose by a scant 7%, electricity use increased by almost 50%. The case of electric steel is therefore merely a stone in the mosaic.

Does all of this fly in the face of St. Amory's sermons and rituals? Of course it does, but so what? When the parroting flock repeats the incantation, it is hagiology, not the facts, that counts.

[More: "The rise of electric steelmaking," EPRI Journal, May/April 1988; Mark Mills, "Implication of recent trends in industrial electrification," USCEA 1776 I St., N.W./#400, Washington, DC 20006.]