conference report SPANISH STEEL AND THE ELECTRIC ARC The importance of the electric arc furnace to the Spanish steel industry was well illustrated recently in a paper delivered by Ignacio Aranguren of SE de Con-strucciones Babcox & Wilcox, at the electric arc con-ference held in Cannes from June 7-9. The following is based on his paper. Despite an increase in raw steel output from 0.8m. tons in 1950, through 1.9m. tons in 1960, to 7.4m. tons in 1970, Spain's increasing demand for rolled products, resulting from rapid development of con-suming industries, has only been met by domestic pro-ducers to the extent of 70/80%, and it has been necessary to import semis and finished products in amounts ranging from 1.5/2.5m. tpy raw steel equiva-lent At present Spain has three companies operating inte-grated steelworks, whose combined output in 1970 was 4.5m. tons (60% of total output), produced in six works, not all of them integrated. The third of these companies has already started commissioning a new integrated works with blast furnaces and LD converters, with a capacity of 2/2.5m. tpy, and will progressively phase out its existing three open hearth melting shops. Then there will be three modern integrated steelworks, sited on the northern coast and very close to the sea, with a potential capacity of 7/7.5m. tpy, and a fourth one located on the Mediterranean coast, old but partly modernised, with a capacity of 0.6m. tpy. On the same site (Sagunto) it has, in principle, been decided to build the planned 4th integrated steelworks, with an initial capacity of 5/6m. tpy, to be expanded up to 10/12m. tons and due to go on stream in 1976. The non-integrated steel industry, primarily devoted to the manufacture of non-alloy steel, is composed of 22 companies with 23 works, spread all over the country, but mostly on the periphery; their combined output in 1970 exceeded the 2m. ton mark. The special steel producers' group comprises 9 firms with 11 works, which produced a total last year of nearly lm. tons of special and ordinary steels. The current "Programa Siderrgico Nacional" (National Steel Programme) establishes the forecast of consumption up to 1975 and envisages specific raw steel consumption per capita increasing from about 250kg. in 1970 to about 370kg. in 1975 and, according to further projections 1980 could see a figure as high as 480kg, which would be equivalent to a total consump-tion of about 17.5m. tons. The domestic industry will have to increase its capacity by about 12m. tpy by 1980 if it is going to meet the market's demands in full. The National Plan also contains forecasts by end uses and applications, and, accordingly, the amounts of raw steel which will have to be devoted to each sector of the rolling programme. On the basis that flat products represent at least half the output of rolled products in an industrialised country, and that some other products (e.g. heavy sections, rails, etc.) are logically made in an integrated works, this sector can be reckoned to have about 60/65 % of total capacity. The non-integrated producers of non-alloy steels might account for between 25 and 30%, the remaining 8 to 10% comprising special steel producers. It is unanimously accepted that, as long as the economic advantages of availability and current raw material price levels last, the blast furnace/LD route is the logical process for making very large tonnages of low carbon steel for flat products and heavy sections in integrated works. It should also be accepted that in Spain, where there are no air-blown converters and where the number of existing cold-charged open hearth furnaces is small and tending to disappear, the rational and only feasible process that the non-integrated steel-makers can use for making special and ordinary steels for bars, large forgings, stampings, steel castings and a high proportion of medium and small structural sections, is the modern electric arc furnace. The structure by sectors of the Spanish steel in-dustry, probably ideal from almost any point of view, of about 60 to 65 % in the integrated sector (mainly LDs) and about 35 to 40% in the non-integrated sector (almost exclusively using modern electric arc furnaces), will give way, according to the expansion programmes foreseen by each sector, to a process structure LD + OH/E1 of about 60/40% or a ratio of 1.5; 1. This structure will place Spain among those with a modern and well-adapted steel industry, very similar to the one that might emerge in USA once the open hearth furnaces are phased out, where it has been anticipated that the distribution of the steel produced by LDs and arc furnaces might be 64/36%, or a ratio of about 1.75:1. Italy is the European country with a process struc-ture closest to Spain's, since its steel production in recent years gives a ratio LD + OH/E1 of 60/40% or 1.5:1, although the open hearth output is still very important. Plans so far announced seem to show that Italian production will keep at around this ratio, although the open hearth share will progressively de-cline. Raw materials The process structure of the Spanish steel industry shows a likely specific consumption of hot metal (plus .cold pig) and scrap of 50025kg and 62525kg, respectively, per ton of raw steel, depending on future variations and taking 89% as the average metallic yield of the various processes or a "mise-au-mille" of 1,125kg. To this steel scrap consumption in the steel-works and independent steel foundries must be added AUGUST, 1971 11