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Forecast: Basic Oxygen Furnaces May Lose More Ground to Their Electric Counterparts
07/11/2016 - The American steel industry’s energy consumption likely will decline over the next 25 years, and steelmaking will tip even more toward electric arc furnaces, according to a long-range forecast from the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
According to the administration’s 2016 Annual Energy Outlook, electric furnaces are forecast to account for a greater share of crude steel production, rising from 62 percent in 2015 to between 69 and 72 percent by 2040.
Basic oxygen furnaces, meanwhile, will lose share, falling from 38 percent now to between 28 and 31 percent during the same period.
At the same time, the administration forecasts that the U.S. steel industry’s energy intensity will decline somewhere between 27 and 32 percent, “primarily as a result of the shift toward greater use of more energy-efficient steelmaking technologies.”
Basic oxygen furnaces, meanwhile, will lose share, falling from 38 percent now to between 28 and 31 percent during the same period.
At the same time, the administration forecasts that the U.S. steel industry’s energy intensity will decline somewhere between 27 and 32 percent, “primarily as a result of the shift toward greater use of more energy-efficient steelmaking technologies.”
