After reading the below, we can imagine the extra demand for chrome and nickel...

"ferritic stainless steels for less than the cost of galvanised steel – in other words, a superior product for a lower price."

WOW ...

http://www.maverickmarketing.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Stainless-steel-magazine-March-2018-FINAL-small.pdf

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Sassda Executive Director John Tarboton recently presented a paper at the International Chromium Developments Association’s (ICDA) annual conference “Chromium 2017” on the South African stainless steel industry and what Sassda is doing to develop this market.

At the conference, two papers were presented on technology disruption in the stainless steel industry

From Outotec

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THE FUTURE The first paper, from Outotec, Finland, focussed on lowering the cost of production of austenitic stainless steel.

It was titled “Ferrochromenickel – Disruptive Innovation for the Stainless Steel Value Chain”.

The idea is to combine the ferrochrome (FeCr) and nickel (Ni) production routes to produce liquid Ferrochromenickel (FeCrNi) and eliminate the nickel refining step.

This process also results in higher yields for metals (chromium, nickel and iron) and a lower energy consumption (15% to 35% lower than FeCr plus Ni or FeNi as separate production routes).

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The second presentation was by Mintal Group, China on “Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow of the Chinese FeCr Industry”.

The Chinese company has developed what it believes is breakthrough technology that will allow it to produce ferritic stainless steel for less than the price of galvanised steel. The plant will be able to produce stainless steel with much lower energy and more environmentally friendly requirements

The last slide had only ten words – “What is our target? Make stainless steel replace carbon steel”.

The breakthrough technology here is producing ferritic stainless steels for less than the cost of galvanised steel – in other words, a superior product for a lower price.

The galvanised steel market in China alone consists of 64 million tonnes. To put this into perspective, the entire world’s production of stainless steel was just over 45 million tonnes in 2016, with China producing 54% of this.

The company also plans to target the coloured steel sheet market in China, which is about 25 million tonnes.

A new stainless steel plant will start producing 2.5 million tonnes of stainless steel within the next two years – and this is just the start. This will be a dedicated ferritic stainless steel plant with backward integration into the ferrochrome plant and iron plant. The idea is to have liquid ferrochrome and liquid iron transfer into a plant optimised for ferritic stainless steel production.

There was not much detail on how a ferritic-only plant would differ from a multi-purpose plant, such as Columbus Stainless, but the presenter was adamant that the process and cost technologies were proven and that the plant was currently being built. He emphasised that process steps need to be combined and reheating avoided wherever possible. This new plant will produce stainless steel with much lower energy requirements and will thus be an environmentally friendly plant to comply with stricter Chinese laws.