In July 2001, Dunkirk blast furnace 4 achieved a 13 years and 9 months long campaign with a 41.7 millions tons hot metal cumulative output. The relining works had been scheduled within a 65 to 75 days period for a total cost over 150 millions Euros. The objectives of the next campaign are : a daily production over 10,800 tons, a blast furnace life over 20 years without any intermediate repair, a significant improvement of the working conditions and a major reduction of the environmental impact.

General presentation of the topic and of the programme of this meeting. Summary of the papers presented during the different sessions. Aspects illustrated by the papers published in this issue.

Since 1953, under successive 5-year development plans, the structure and the production level of the Chinese steel industry has considerably changed. Although the share of flat products has increased, China remains a net importer of these products and other high value added products. In connection with the development of the consuming industries, the Chinese steel industry is undergoing important transformations, in structure, technology, capacity and efficiency.

In Europe, like elsewhere, the share of steel produced by electric arc furnaces from scrap increases. As the amount of internal scrap has decreased considerably, the steel plants recycle more and more collected obsolete and capital scrap. This source of iron has increased rapidly and will continue to increase. In spite of that, some plants may have to include in their EAF charge prereduced iron coming from countries where natural gas is available at low cost.

The different models of sintering are reviewed, with a special attention to the developments in the last fifteen years. The models are classified between microscopic models, which describe the evolution of the material with a cell containing one or a few particles, models at the scale of the particle packing, and macroscopic models, which describe the evolution at a scale which is large compared to the particle size. Perspectives for the future are briefly discussed.