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The Stockholm selection: The manifesto

July 19, 2010 - 00:00 GMT

Steelmaking is big business.

Steelmaking is big business. Last year the World Steel Association (worldsteel) recorded total crude steel output at 1.2 billion tonnes. This was down slightly from 1.3 billion tonnes in 2008. That makes the steel sector one of the largest in the world in terms of tonnage. In value terms, that production makes it a leader as well. Steel is a major contributor to world GDP. It is an ingredient in almost every part of the modern built environment. And it is usually one of the key materials used in the development of an emerging economy. Unfortunately, making steel hasn’t always been a very profitable affair. Over the past ten years, however, that’s started to change, and so has the industry. Partially that’s thanks to the growing role of China. In just a few years the country morphed from the world’s largest steel importer to the world’s largest exporter. Now it...

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