Foreword - ECIC & ICSTI Conferences

Dear Sir, dear Madam,

The 8^th ECIC and the 9^th ICSTI were initially planned to take place in Bremen, Germany, in March 2021. With respect to the worldwide Covid 19 pandemic it needed to be postponed thrice. The Steel Institute as organizer took these decisions to guarantee all necessary measures and efforts to avoid infections.

Meanwhile the situation has changed in a direction which enables us to hold the events from 29^th August to 2^nd September 2022 in Bremen with physical participation of the delegates.

After two years of slow-down and partly lock-down in our society, plant operators, plant suppliers, research institutes and universities will have the opportunity to present and discuss their newest technologies and developments in the field of ironmaking on site. The technical programme foresees highly topical presentations. On the background to aim for future climate neutral iron and steelmaking and to strongly counteract CO2-emissions especially in the European Union the processes for iron ore reduction are set into the focus of evaluations.

We are looking forward to welcoming you to Bremen as a participant and especially during the opening session of the 8^th ECIC and the 9^th ICSTI from 29^th August to 2^nd September 2022.

Dear Sir, dear Madam,

The 8th European Coke and Ironmaking Congress (ECIC) and the 9th International
Conference on Science and Technology of Ironmaking (ICSTS) take place
in Bermen, Germany, from 29th August to 2nd September 2022. The Coke
and Ironmaking events were started separately as the European Ironmaking
Congress (EIC) in 1986 in Aachen, Germany, and in 1991 in Glasgow, Scotland,
and as the International Cokemaking Congress (ICMC) in 1987 in Essen,
Germany, and in 1992 in London, England. The merger of these two events
took place in 1996 as the European Coke and Ironmaking Congress (ECIC) in
Gent, Belgium. The 4th ECIC was in 2000 in Paris, France, the 5th took place in
2005 in Stockholm, Sweden, the 6th 2011 in Düsseldorf, Germany, and the 7th
2016 in Linz, Austria. The ECIC sets the focus more on practical plant operation
and plant construction in all fields of ironmaking.

The ICSTI sets the focus in these fields on fundamental research work and
evaluations. The ICSTI conference took place for the first time 1994 in Sendai,
Japan followed by the 2nd 1998 in Toronto, Canada, the 3rd 2003 in Düsseldorf,
Germany, the 4th 2006 in Osaka, Japan, the 5th 2009 in Shanghai, China, the 6th
2012 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, the 7th 2015 in Cleveland, USA, and the 8th 2018
in Vienna, Austria.

Both events, the 8th ECIC and the 9th ICSTI, are taking place for the first time
together in Bremen in 2022. These events will highlight the newest technologies
in cokemaking, sintering, pelletizing and ironmaking (blast furnaces, direct
reduction) throughout the world, and it will be a family meeting. Currently the
steel industry and especially ironmaking faces a completely new situation especially
in Europe. The intensive efforts of the steel industry to reach climate neutrality
in iron and steel production by 2050 will have strong effects on the technologies
for iron ore reduction. The transformation from blast furnace converter
route to direct reduction electric arc furnace route could be the silver bullet.

Based on the programme with approximately 114 presentations I expect
interesting days and sessions during the 8th ECIC and the 9th ICSTI. The
programme should encourage you to come and I am looking forward to
meeting you in Bremen from 29th August to 2nd September 2022.

Dr. Hans Bodo Lüngen
Chairman 8th ECIC and 9th ICSTI