worldsteel announces steelChallenge-11 World Championship Finalists

The World Steel Association (worldsteel) announced today the World Championship Finalists for the 11th steelChallenge.

Brussels, 7 December – The Regional Championship took place online for a 24-hour period on 30 November 2016. This year’s steelChallenge attracted 1479 participants representing 37 countries. The eleventh edition added 36% more participants than the previous year.

There were 128,708 attempts with the basic oxygen steelmaking simulation with 707 people successfully completing at least one run of the simulation and a total of 8,701 successful runs completed.

The top placed people in the ‘Industry’ and ‘Student’ categories will be invited with expenses paid to compete for the title of World Champion in Beijing, China, on 11 April 2017. Qualifying for the World Championship are the first place people in each region plus the highest-scoring runner-up worldwide.

The award ceremony will be held in the presence of leaders of the global steel industry. All Finalists will be awarded certificates, cash prizes and an iPad in addition to their trip. The World Champions in both categories will also be awarded a World Champion certificate, an additional cash prize and the steelChallenge trophy.

steelChallenge-11 utilised steeluniversity’s Basic Oxygen steelmaking simulation. Competitors were tasked to produce a grade of steel meeting technical requirements at the lowest cost per tonne. The simulation used a grade of steel specifically designed for steelChallenge-11.

Competitors could undertake unlimited ‘runs’ of the simulation during the 24-hour competition period. A ‘run’ was concluded when the simulation had completed the set time, the result had been registered in the competition database, and the competitor had received a confirmation of successful completion.

The 3 best ‘runs’ of each competitor were averaged to determine their score and placement in the Regional Championship.

The World Championship Finalists are:

See the steeluniversity website to see the 5 highest scorers per region and more information on steelChallenge-11

• steeluniversity, an initiative of the World Steel Association, is an industry university, delivering education and training to current and future employees of steel companies and related businesses. The goal of steeluniversity is to inspire and motivate students and steel industry people about the value of working in the steel industry so as to lead change for realising a more sustainable industry that serves a more sustainable world.
• China Steel Corporation is a ‘Steel’ level sponsor of steelChallenge-11. ‘Silver’ level sponsors are Tenaris, Ternium, and Tata Steel Limited. Nucor Corporation and JFE Steel are ‘Bronze’ level sponsors.
• The World Steel Association (worldsteel) is one of the largest and most dynamic industry associations in the world. worldsteel members represent approximately 85% of the world’s steel production, including over 160 steel producers with 9 of the 10 largest steel companies, national and regional steel industry associations, and steel research institutes.