Sustainable steel 2010 Company case study

ArcelorMittal: High-strength steel for low-carbon construction

Challenge
Construction has an important role to play in sustainability because of its economic, social and environmental contributions and its impact on our lives. Employing over 111 million people, the construction industry accounts for 40% of global energy consumption. In the US alone, buildings account for 38% of CO2 emissions, 40% of raw material use, 30% of waste output and 14% of water consumption. As the need for buildings continues to grow worldwide, reducing structures consumption of natural resources, and associated emissions, is crucial for future sustainability.

Action
Steel offers a wide range of advantages that can make buildings more energy-efficient and less costly to operate. Steel is 100% recyclable and it can be re-used indefinitely without loss of quality.

Moscows Federation Tower

Steels high strength-to-weight ratio means that steel construction requires less material than traditional construction technologies. Together with reductions in emissions during building, this reduces a structures wider environmental impact. Potential gains in sustainability from even higher strength steels than those currently on the market have prompted ArcelorMittal to research their production for construction. A major technical challenge in the commercial manufacture of such steels is their structure. Working with the Centre de Recherches Mtallurgiques in Lige, Belgium over several years, ArcelorMittal has developed a cost-effective in line quenching and self-tempering (QST) process that accommodates the characteristics of higher-strength steels. The result is a new high-strength steel HISTAR. Following extensive regulatory procedures, the steel has been approved for use in construction, recognised by the product standard authorities, and incorporated into local application and fabrication codes. With increased product thickness, very high yield strength, good toughness at low temperatures and highly-effective weldability, HISTAR structural steels combine properties that were incompatible in older steels. As a result, the construction industry is able to build lighter structures that are even more economical, safe and sustainable.

June 2010

Outcome
HISTAR steel provides, on average, weight reductions of 32% in steel columns and 19% in beams. Consequently, these steels require less energy to manipulate and transport, giving reductions of overall construction-related CO2 emissions of up to 30%. In 2007, more than 50,000 tonnes of this steel was produced. This represented a saving of 14,000 tonnes of CO2. That is roughly equivalent to the annual emissions of 4,000 vehicles. HISTAR steel sections have been used in hundreds of structures throughout the world. Typical applications are high-rise buildings, structures in seismic areas, sport stadiums, bridges, stations, car parks, and hospitals, as well as industrial structures such as large warehouses, factories and power plants. Iconic structures that have been built with the steels include the Freedom Tower in New York, The Emirates Tower in Dubai, The Federation Tower in Moscow and The World Financial Center in Shanghai. Future steel structures have the potential to have even lighter parts and consequently increase savings in CO2 emissions. ArcelorMittal is developing HISTAR Grade 70, which aims to exceed the current HISTAR 460 model specifications. Improvements to impact toughness will enable steels to also more strongly resist low temperatures, allowing buildings to be developed for harsher environments and colder conditions.

June 2010