| Nowhere within the global recycling industry is the scale of activity and investment more prodigious than in the ferrous metals sector. Iron and steel is recycled in larger tonnages than any other material, with the resultant, tightly-specified scrap products being sold to steelworks and foundries around the world. As a measure of the industry's enormity, processed scrap accounted for approaching half the furnace feed bought by the world's steelmakers in 2004 - a year in which they produced more than one billion tonnes of new steel product. The world's foundries also depend on a steady intake of secondary material to provide the major proportion of their feedstock. |
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 Using secondary resources to make steel in place of iron ore has many advantages other than the vital consideration of cost. Recycled material is nearly 100% metal and is generally available within easy reach, or is readily transported in bulk. In contrast, iron ore has to be freed from tailings and chemical impurities and smelted in a blast furnace before it can be converted into steel. Only special directly-reduced, top-quality ore pellets can be fed straight into a steelmaking furnace. The use of secondary metal, in comparison to ore, gives a dramatic energy saving, significantly reduces the amount of water needed and causes less air pollution.
The ferrous metal processing industry handles a vast array of scrap, including: by-products from the engineering sector; worn-out cars and other vehicles; entire ships; retired trains; redundant tanks and silos; discarded consumer durables such as fridges and freezers; obsolete machine tools; and even dismantled buildings and other structures with a steel content. Ferrous metal processors require the most powerful and often the most expensive processing equipment. Hydraulically-powered guillotine shears exert thousands of tonnes of pressure to cut heavy steel such as girders, rails and ship-plate into neat chunks of furnace feed. Baling presses compact lighter material into neat, easily-handled blocks. Off-cuts of sheet steel are cropped to furnace size by small "alligator" shears which operate in just the way the name suggests. Processors will use gas, plasma arc and other torch cutting techniques to reduce particularly large structures to more manageable and processable sizes.
 Shredders incorporate rotating magnetic drums to extract iron and steel from the mixture of metals and other materials. Further separation of valuable non-ferrous metals such as copper and aluminium is subsequently achieved using a range of sophisticated techniques, including eddy current, forced air or liquid sink-float systems. Most of these modern methods of processing are carried out automatically, with computers often being used to maintain the highest levels of operating efficiency.
 The ferrous scrap processing industry has consistently risen to the challenge of changing circumstances. For example, industry representatives within BIR and other leading recycling organisations have liaised with legislators in a bid to ensure that the goals of the European Union's new Directive on End-of-Life Vehicles are both workable and environmentally sound.
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IISI World Steel production, scrap consumption, imports & Exports