The FINEX Process Emerging at New Steel Era

Abstract

As the new millennium arrived, economic booms in the BRICs led to explosive growth in demand for steel. Consolidation in the mining industry in latter 1990s combined with the hike in steel demand has made the cost of raw materials soaring. In consequence, natural resources and environment has become the key words of global steel industry in 21st century. Posco began basic research on coal-based fluidized-bed reduction and smelting technology, named FINEX, back in 1992 to take the place of the blast furnace in response to growing imperatives on environment and natural resources. The 1.5 mtpa FINEX plant at Pohang Works has demonstrated that the process is a significantly more eco-friendly and less capital intensive process, addressing all fundamental drawbacks of the blast-furnace process. The CEM process, that integrates casting and rolling processes in a single manufacturing line, is under development to match with FINEX. If built in newly industrialized countries with iron ore and other resources, the FINEX-CEM unit will reduce capital investment significantly and enable the production of high-grade products from low-grade raw materials when it is fully commercialized.