The Arab Steel Summit, that convened in Abu Dhabi in April,gave us another opportunity to review the situation of the ArabIron and Steel Industry, with regard to the present World economiccontext.
We will address:The World situation of steel production, focusing on the ArabCountries; 
The related situation of steel consumption;
The steel trade, including imports, exports and prices;
The consequences for technology and economy.


Uncontrolled pushing force can lead to severe degradationof coke oven walls. To measure the pushing force a torquesensor can easily be installed on the driving shaft of thepushing machine.
The pushing curve shows a typical first peak whichcorresponds to the end of the coke cake compression phaseand the beginning of the coke cake movement. Generallyafter this peak the pushing force sharply decreases as cokemoves, coke weight decreases and oven taper prevents fromwall friction.
The first peak is related to the coke cake properties.
Pushing curves may show a progressive increase of pushingforce or further peaks depending on the pushing machineand the general condition of the oven.
Safe limit of pushing force first peak is around 1.5 times thecoke weight.

Surface corner cracks are sometimes observed on slabs of highstrength low alloyed steel grades, requiring expensive scarfing.To avoid surface crack formation, we can act on the steel intrinsicductility loss through the limitation of S and N contents: S < 30ppm and N < 40 ppm are well adapted thresholds. A Ti/Nratio higher than 3.6 and a limitation of Al*N product leadto a significant improvement of the quality results. In addition,the continuous casting process must be optimized. It aims atlimiting the thermomechanical strains faced by the slab surfaceduring solidification and cooling, particularly when the slabcorner temperature is in the range of the ductility trough. Themain process actuators are the mould powder, the secondarycooling curves and the limitation of the misalignments inthe top part of the caster, especially the transitions betweenthe mould foot-rolls, the vertical and the bending segments.

The cracking behaviour of the oxide layer formed duringhot rolling has been studied together with differentcombinations of process parameters in order to find theirsingle influence on the surface quality and formation ofoxide defects. Several trials have been performed on theCRM pilot line to study in detail the impact of strip reduction,strip temperature, entry scale thickness, roll degradation,lubrication, skin cooling, chemical composition andhumidity on the scale behaviour. In general the degree ofdeformation, entry scale thickness and rolling temperaturesare the more important parameters and the importancedecreases in that order.

Non destructive testing techniques, like Eddy Current andUltrasound, are common practice today in any roll shop.Pomini Tenova, with its considerable experience gainedinstalling more than 350 inspection systems throughout theworld, designed its new generation inspection system tomeet growing customer demands for system performance,adherence to quality, health and safety. The new Inspektor.NET system is the result of an intelligent manufacturingproject which guarantees improved performance in EddyCurrent and Ultrasound scans.