By Aruna Sharma
Environment friendly, reusable, corrosion resistant, aesthetically appealing and resistant to fire makes stainless steel the ideal metal for many industries
The stainless steel sector fits perfectly into the definition of a sustainable material because it focuses on meeting the needs of the present without compromising on the ability of future generations to meet their needs.
The concept of sustainability is based on three main pillars –economic, environmental and social—also known informally as profits, planets and people. Since stainless steel is corrosion resistant, has very low emission footprints of just 0.12% per ton, can be recycled over and over again and requires little maintenance, it clearly is the metal of the future.
It can withstand calamities and natural disasters like hurricanes and earthquakes much better than most construction and building materials, and is therefore more environment-friendly than many other metals. Additionally, being aesthetically appealing and resistant to fire and crash resistant, stainless steel products are both beautiful and long lasting.
Finally, for users of stainless steel for construction and other activities, it is profitable from a life-cycle point of view—the return on investments during its entire period of its use. Moreover, stainless steel has high resale value and provides higher returns than other materials.
Given all these benefits, stainless steel is increasingly being used across industries. For instance, it is already making its presence felt in architecture, building and construction activities, also known as the ABC sector. Today 12% of all stainless steel production is used in the construction of buildings, railings, gates and decorative applications. It is now being increasingly used in the construction of toilets and in various machines.
Stainless steel is also a strong candidate for structural applications. For instance, work on building India’s first all-steel railway foot overbridge (FOB) at Bhayandar Railway Station in Mumbai by Western Railways is nearing completion. The new railway foot overbridge will allow for smooth and spacious movement of passengers. Again, the wonder metal is now being increasingly used in the construction of tunnels and will only gather momentum once the 100-odd state-of-the-art smart cities go full steam ahead.
Similarly, 13% of the total steel production is used in automobiles, railways and transport (ART). The wonder metal has found increasing usage is in the manufacture of railways coaches and wagons. Today, high-speed trains in the US are made of stainless steel, as are Volvo buses in Sweden. Even fuel tanks, too, are increasingly made of stainless steel because it does not leak or absorb vapour.
The real competition to stainless steel in the ART sector comes mostly from the aluminium sector. However, the versatility of stainless steel is globally validated by the fact that over the past 35 years, growth of stainless steel has exceeded growth of aluminium and carbon steel by 36% and 100% respectively.
In mobility solutions, stainless steel has inherent advantages over aluminium because the former can withstand temperatures in excess of 900 degree centigrade, thus making it an excellent light weight, fire-resistant material. Thus, it is far better than aluminium, which starts degrading after 100 degree centigrade.
These days automobile manufacturers have to build lightweight vehicles. Combining exceptional weldability and strength, stainless steel enables designers to make parts as light as their “light metal” counterparts like aluminium, but at a much cheaper cost. Other benefits include the higher impact resistance of stainless steel than aluminium structures.
Moreover, even the density advantage of aluminium is offset by higher strength of stainless steel. Thus, stainless steel can steal a march over other competing materials in making lightweight vehicles because repair, welding, and maintenance of aluminium coaches in India require a level of skill that’s currently unavailable in the country.
Nearly 30% of stainless steel is used in capital goods and in process industries like dairy and food processing, in distillery and in the pharmaceutical machinery and 44% in durables and household utensils and 1% in others. It has already emerged as the desired metal for all kinds of utensils for its durability and for other consumer durables like sinks. The stainless steel used for the utensil industry is mostly manufactured by the MSME sector is under threat because of the imports from China.
The use of stainless steel overhead water tanks and self-serving machines too are gaining traction, and in the near future, water ATMs and water plumbing too will use stainless steel as construction material because it reduces water leakage. The Delhi Jal Board loses 48% of water due to leaky pipelines. The leading source of child death in India is attributed to unclean drinking water. Hence, stainless steel can become a viable and sustainable alternative, because of its hygienic and non-corrosive properties. Thus, from water treatment plants to supply pipelines to storage tanks, alternate metals such as stainless steel can play a pivotal part in the entire process of providing water. In Tokyo and Seoul, when water service pipelines were replaced with stainless steel pipes, the water losses in the city reduced from over 15% to 2%.
In certain application segments the intensity of stainless steel is less and cost of stainless steel as a percentage of total product/ project cost is negligible. In such cases the price increase or decrease is temporarily absorbed in the Product. (e.g., Auto, Railways, Process industry etc.). In other segments the price change is passed through.
In fact, the governments of UK, India, Germany and Canada have announced a pledge to purchase low-carbon emission steel under the Industrial Deep Decarbonisation Initiative (IDDI), at the UN Climate Change Conference in November, 2021, which could help the cause of stainless steel.
However, to increase the scope and usage of stainless steel in the country, the government and the private sector needs to come together and work in partnership to increase its usage to help its cause. For instance, the government needs to focus on skill development (there is a dire shortage of skilled staff), develop new products, build ecosystems and also need to create awareness of the metal through social and other media.
Looking into the criticality of stainless steel for sustainable solutions and ‘Nation building’ it is strongly recommended to have a separate & focussed vision document on Stainless Steel growth.
(Aruna Sharma is former Secretary, Ministry of Steel, and Information Technology, Government of India. The views expressed are author’s own.)
