Iron and steel metallurgy—Ongoing challenges

Iron and steel making lasts for several thousand years and is based on changing technologies. The driving forces for those changes are economical or disposability of raw material and energy sources. In this paper three challenges for the newly development in iron and steel metallurgy are highlighted: Continuous casting strand size increase, solidification behaviour of new steel grades, and suppression of CO₂-emission during iron making. Examples underline the recent process of technological changes. 40 years of Sino German university cooperation in metallurgy are part of those technological development.