I am very optimistic in this area. There are many areas for the application of steel where the properties of new steels and the changing requirements of society present exciting opportunities. One area is in residential housing where traditional materials in many parts of the world are becoming increasingly scarce and where considerations of economy and ecology combine to make steel the best choice material for the future. In the automotive business, steel will see off materials such as aluminium and engineering plastics on economic performance, safety and environmental criteria. IISI acts as the management agent for a series of international consortium of steel companies around the world, which have established programmes to demonstrate that current and future steels will provide the best solutions for the automotive business.
Steel does have the best starting point in terms of sustainability of all materials.
In terms of actual achieved rates of recycling, steel is way ahead of its competitors. In terms of the energy required to produce steel and the improvements in energy consumption achieved in recent years, steel is again ahead of the competition. In terms of environmental reporting, which we have championed in IISI, today the leading steel companies recognise the great positive value in a clear and comprehensive reporting to society on their environmental performance. IISI's members have established a database of environmental data, a life cycle inventory for twelve different steel products. We hold this data based on actual measurements from 55 steel plants world-wide.