worldsteel announces the 7th steeluniversity Challenge World Champions

Brussels,  February 2013 – The World Steel Association (worldsteel) today announces the new World Champions of the 7th steeluniversity Challenge. A team from Tata Steel in India won in the category for young steel industry employees, and a team from University of Ljubljana in Slovenia won in the student category.

The World Championship of the 7th steeluniversity Challenge took place in Brussels on 19 February 2013 with the regional champions from the first round competing for the top prize. The task was to refine an order of construction steel grade, which is used in earth-moving equipment. The contestants had two-and-a-half hours to produce the requested steel at minimum cost. The lowest cost achieved at the world championship was $23.13 per tonne.

Alexey Mordashov, Chairman of worldsteel and General Director, Severstal JSC, presented the trophies and certificates. Mr Mordashov said: “I am delighted to meet ‘the next generation of Bessemers’ here today. The future of the steel industry lies in the areas of innovation and high-technology development, which will be driven forward by the winners today. The steel industry offers great career opportunities for those who wish to help society to meet its future sustainability challenges.”

Dr Edwin Basson, Director General of worldsteel, said: “steeluniversity provides sophisticated e-learning materials covering steel applications, processing, ferrous metallurgy, sustainability and safety. Over the last 10 years more than 23,000 registered users have benefited from this comprehensive collection of e-learning resources. In the successful first round in November 2012, 1,148 talented entrants from 30 countries worldwide competed for the title of regional champion within 5 geographic areas. This is an impressive increase of 76% compared with last year’s event.”

Manjunathan Mohan and Chandra Prakash Sankar, the champions in the industry category, said: “The challenge not only taught us ‘flexibility’ in devising strategies but also gave us a great opportunity to meet many industry experts and share our knowledge. We think the modules of steeluniversity are very helpful especially for students and young engineers in the steel industry.”

Andraž Bradeško and Anže Tekavčič, the student champions, said: “Team work and practice are the two key elements for our achievement at the challenge today. We are very proud of being the global champions of this exciting and remarkable challenge.”

• The steeluniversity website is a free and innovative e-learning resource focused on all aspects of steel, including steelmaking technology and the multitude of steel applications. It provides highly interactive, game-like simulations of the major steelmaking processes in real-time. This award-winning, on-line initiative is developed and sponsored by the World Steel Association.
• steeluniversity resources are used by more than 100 steel companies and 200 universities worldwide. Many of its modules have been translated into other languages, including Chinese (simplified), Chinese (traditional), Korean, Spanish, Russian, German and Japanese.
• steeluniversity won the European Academic Software Awards (EASA) in 2004 and the steeluniversity project team was recognised with the AIST’s Benjamin F. Fairless Award in 2008.
• The World Steel Association (worldsteel) is one of the largest and most dynamic industry associations in the world. worldsteel represents approximately 170 steel producers (including 16 of the world’s 20 largest steel companies), national and regional steel industry associations, and steel research institutes. worldsteel members represent around 85% of world steel production.