The Impact of the New Technologies and the EU Climate Objectives on the Steel Industry

Abstract

AbstractOver the last years, an ever-increasing level of automation has been observed in the steelworks. In this context, the European steel industry is committed to integrating new technologies in the production chain to evolve towards the Industry 4.0 paradigm and even beyond. The application of digital technologies aims at optimising the integration of production units to enhance product quality, process flexibility, energy and resource efficiency, environmental sustainability and productivity in the whole sector. This chapter aims at providing an overview on the challenges related to the integration of digital technologies as well as to the EU climate objectives in the European steel sector. Starting from a state-of-the-art analysis, including the progresses achieved in the field over the last few decades, this chapter presents some of the outcomes of the study carried out within the Erasmus+ industry-driven project ‘European Steel Skills Alliance (ESSA)’. The impact of digital technologies on the workforce, the technological transformation and the EU climate objectives are analysed. Moreover, the results of an analysis concerning the level of automation in the European steelworks and the digital technologies in supporting the social innovation are discussed.