Globalisation of steel industry has ushered in an era of cost competitiveness. The international steel producers are making continuous efforts to make their production cost effective to market the product at a competitive price. What matters to a company, however, is its position on the global cost curve. Refractories play a significant role in many core sector industries, particularly in the Iron and Steel sector, which alone accounts for consumption of nearly 70% of the total refractories produced.

With these in background Tata Steel jointly with Indian Institute of Metals, Jamshedpur chapter, has organized a two-day International Conference On “Refractories For Iron And Steel Industries” at Jamshedpur on 4th and 5th October 2004. The idea behind arranging this conference is to get the Indian Steel makers and refractories engineers together to compare notes with each other and also examine practices followed internationally. Besides, This seminar has also been conceived with a view to focus attention on narrowing the gap, by throwing up relevant issues and technological options. It also aims to promote deliberations on diverse refractory related issues confronting the Iron and Steel Sector. The objective is to evolve a technology road map, which will indicate the step to be taken by the Steel Industry to move forward from present to future for global competitiveness.

The conference where more than 210 delegates from India and Abroad have participated, and 32 papers, including 12 from overseas were presented by representatives from organisations comprising refractory manufacturer steel makers and other educational and research institutions was concluded today with intense discussion on the various advancements in refractory technology for meeting the present and future challenges pertaining to Iron and Steel industry. At the end of the conference, a panel discussion was held where the emerging technical developments in refractories were deliberated to assess their feasibility for deployment in developments in various application areas. The panel, chaired by Mr U K Chaturvedi, Chairman, Core Committee and Vice President (Long Product) Tata Steel, while reviewing the technical papers presented in various sessions, observed that significant progress has been made in the field of refractories matching pace with changing scenario of Iron and Steel Industry. A detail action plan was worked out, as a take away from the conference, which will enable the refractory performance to improve significantly in various application areas e.g LD Vessel, Ladle, Blast Furnaces, Coke Oven and Reheating Furnace etc.

Towards the end of the seminar there was unanimity regarding the success of conference and its objectives. The participants were delighted to be part of such an unique event which ingrained their desire to come back again to Jamshedpur is such opportunity is provided in future. An exhibition has also been organized to highlight the achievements in Refractories area during these two days conference.